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<\/p>\nThe last gift to me from my time at the “porcupine bush” was a species I’d never photographed or even seen before – a Fox Sparrow. And yes, that excites me.<\/p>\n
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1\/6400, f\/5.6, ISO 1000, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Two days ago on what may be the last time I try seriously this year\u00a0to photograph birds at that very productive serviceberry bush next to the stinky\u00a0dead porcupine\u00a0I spotted this Fox Sparrow as it landed on some dead brush to the right of the bush. It wasn’t very close to me so this image has been significantly cropped but\u00a0Fox Sparrows are\u00a0large for a sparrow and its size helped to give me some reasonably good image quality. It stayed there for some time so I got quite a few shots but it didn’t give me much pose variety so I’m including only a single image as documentation.<\/p>\n Some may think “it’s only a sparrow” but I can’t help but get excited about a lifer and I appreciate sparrows as much as any bird.<\/p>\n One thing confuses me. Fox Sparrows are common, they’re found throughout almost all of North America except for extremes of Northern Canada, coastal Alaska, most of Florida and Mexico and they’re so widespread they’ve evolved into 18 subspecies (18! –\u00a0can you imagine that?). So why have I never seen or photographed one in my travels over\u00a0a large swath\u00a0of the American West during the last 10+ years I’ve been photographing birds??<\/p>\n Birds are funny that way. Perhaps I’ve seen them and just haven’t noticed them or maybe their famously shy nature has something to do with it, I dunno…<\/p>\n How about my readers? Do you see Fox Sparrows commonly, or at all?<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n PS – Some may be amused by a stupid mistake I almost made in my title. Last night while I was preparing this post I typed my title as “Fox Squirrel – A Lifer For Me”. I didn’t spot my mistake until this morning just before I published the post. I think it’s funny now but I sure as hell wouldn’t have been amused\u00a0if I’d published it that way. When I click that “Publish” button the email links,\u00a0including the title, go out to subscribers\u00a0instantly\u00a0and at that point it’s just too\u00a0darned late to take it back.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The last gift to me from my time at the “porcupine bush” was a species I’d never photographed or even seen before – a Fox Sparrow. And yes, that excites me.<\/p>\n