White-crowned Sparrow

I took these pictures along Lands End Trail in San Francisco on May 2. White-crowned Sparrows were easily the most numerous sparrow along the trail. The one in the pictures above was building a nest in the tall grass very near the trail. I watched as it would fly a short distance away to find some dried grass, sometimes yanking and shaking it to free it from the ground or untangle it from the brush.

I thought I may have found a new life bird. The mixture of brown and black on its crown was not something that I had seen before, but when I took a closer look on my computer I am pretty confident that this is a young White-crowned that is transitioning from the brown striped crown of a juvenile to the black and white crown of an adult.

White-crowned Sparrow

I spent the day yesterday helping my son and a team of dedicated and enthusiastic people donate 2 days of their time to make a movie for the 48 Hour Film Project. When I say spent the day, I mean the WHOLE day. I got up at 5:00 AM and didn't get home until after 1:00 AM Sunday morning. I provided the lighting for the shoot. It was a lot of fun, but between that and the lighting I did for Wilsonville High School's production of The Odd Couple, I haven't had a lot of time to bird.
I'm still working through all the pictures I took on my trip to Las Vegas. I didn't see a lot of Sparrows at the sites I visited and the one's I did see where mostly White-crowns like the one in the image above.

White-crowned Sparrow

I'm really getting tired of how Blogger messes with my images. This image is washed out compared to what I uploaded. None-the-less, it still looks nice.
White-crowned Sparrows are almost as cooperative as Song Sparrows when it comes to taking their picture. This one was sitting on a sign at the beginning of the trail at TRNWR.
I'm going to be changing servers soon that'll be more work, but will let me control the image quality. I may repost some images at that time.

White-crowned Sparrow

Today was the last day with the 400mm telephoto unless I rent it again sometime. I'd really like to try the 600mm, but it is always already reserved when I call in. I'll have to plan further ahead next time.
I was only going to be out in the morning as I had to spend some time working in the yard, etc., so I thought I'd stay close to home and walk TRNWR again. The first three pictures of the day are images shown above of the White-crowned Sparrow. There are several things I like about these images. First of all the blue-green background is really cool and contrasts well with the brown branch. I had no idea it was going to turn out like that when I shot the pictures. The Sparrow was perched on a low hanging Oak Tree branch and was heavily shadowed. That's where the f2.8 comes in handy. Another thing I like is the fact that the Sparrow has some caterpillars in its beak. If you look closely at the bottom image, I looks like it could have as many as three.
I generally write the text for these postings while I waiting for the images to upload. They just came in and are more washed out than they are when I view them with Pixelmator. I've noticed this before and am not quite sure if it Blogspot adjusting the image, the way Firefox renders the image or Pixelmator. Anyway, I'll have to check it out at work and see how they look there.

White-crowned Sparrow

I was walking through the gravel parking lot at TRNWR last Tuesday on my way back to my car when a White-crowned Sparrow jumped out of the grass in the loop right in front of me. It sat there for what seemed like 30 seconds letting me take several pictures from close range. Then, just as it flew off, another emerged from the grass with an insect in its beak. It didn't linger for as long as the first, but I was able to get a few shots of it too. It's not the first time that I got some nice shots of birds in the parking lot area as I'm about to leave the refuge. In fact the only other White-crowned Sparrow pictures that I've taken were in a similar situation.

White-crowned Sparrow

Occasionally I will see a bird while driving and wish I had my camera. Early last week I saw a Western Bluebird sitting on a fence top along the road as I was driving home from work. I haven't seen them that often but there is a program around the area to revive their numbers by placing bird houses in appropriate areas. So where am I going with this? I think the Bluebird was the catalyst for a dream I had a couple of days later. I would have really liked to have gotten that shot of the Bluebird. In my dream I was walking through some sort of a garden area and I came across a White-crowned Sparrow. I hadn't seen a White-crowned Sparrow since I was a kid and of course I didn't have my camera. Well, as I was leaving TRNWR on Sunday, the last outing of the weekend and last with the rented 400mm lens, what do I run into but a White-crowned Sparrow. Was my dream prophetic? I don't know, but it was a fun coincidence.