Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Vesper Sparrow

Needless to say, this photo is being posted for ID help, not for any photographic merit : ) Unfortunately, this little bird was so far away and the sunlight was harsh. Took a few quick shots of it, as it looked like something different from the small Sparrows I would normally see. It was taken on 9 September 2016, SE of Vulcan, on my way home from a trip to the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale, near Lethbridge. Many thanks, Ron (Kube), for the ID. Have also just heard back from friend and excellent birder, Tony T, and he said that "the strong eye ring points to Vesper Sparrow". Thanks, both of you, for the ID! I wasn't sure if I had ever seen or photographed a Vesper Sparrow before, but I discovered that I have five previous (and much better) images on Flickr. Maybe i will post one of them in a comment box below.

Usually when I see a small bird standing on a fence post, it's a Savannah Sparrow. This bird seems to be lacking yellow "eyebrows" and has a white outer edge to it's tail feathers. The pattern on its cheeks does not look familiar to me, but maybe it's a female or a juvenile "something". I'm not good at Sparrow ID, but I checked my bird book and did a quick look on Google. Any help with ID would be greatly appreciated! It was seen yesterday (12 July 2014) , SE of Calgary, in the Frank Lake area. My first stop was at Frank Lake, where I saw a few more Eared Grebes with their quite large "babies". The light was really bad, so it was impossible to get photos that showed colour and details. Will lighten one or two of them and see if that works. Saw Soras again - love these little guys, they are so cute. A few very distant White-faced Ibis, but I lucked out later, finding a lone Ibis at a slough somewhere around the lake. Also saw a couple of small birds that I'm not sure of the ID for, along the country backroads. Posted this one today and will upload a very poor photo of the other sometime soon.

A third and final photo of this little Vesper Sparrow that we saw at Confluence Park a while ago. I'm not very likely to get another shot of this species, so thought I'd add all three to my Birds of Alberta Set. "Vesper Sparrows are birds of dry, open areas with grass or stubble, such as grasslands, cultivated fields, pastures, roadsides, and parkland meadows. In this habitat they are common to fairly common in the southern two-thirds of Alberta except the mountains, and uncommon to scarce in the northern third." From talkaboutwildlife.ca .

A well-cropped photo of this Vesper Sparrow, taken three days ago during a walk at Confluence Park. Oh, it feels so strange to be uploading a bird photo after all the flowers and fungi of summer! Not the greatest shot (messy on the left), but it is the first closer photo I've taken of a Vesper Sparrow. Has chestnut shoulder patch and white eye ring. "Vesper Sparrows are birds of dry, open areas with grass or stubble, such as grasslands, cultivated fields, pastures, roadsides, and parkland meadows. In this habitat they are common to fairly common in the southern two-thirds of Alberta except the mountains, and uncommon to scarce in the northern third." From talkaboutwildlife.ca .

Another cropped view of the little Vesper Sparrow we heard and saw at Confluence Park a week ago. Not exactly the most photogenic surroundings, but I was just happy to get a few photos of this little Sparrow. By the way, something weird has been going on with Flickr the last three or four days. I don't know if my "new" updates are not showing up on some people's Home Page or if there is something else not happening. I do know I only received one comment in a space of 15 hours, which is most unusual and very strange : ) If anyone happens to have noticed anything, either with my photostream or their own, it would be really interesting to hear : )

Not sure if I've ever seen a Vesper Sparrow before - don't remember ever taking a photo of one in the past.