This weekend I traveled north to Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County, FL to look for the Bachman's Sparrow, a sparrow endemic to the Southeast United States. This species prefers pine forest with an open understory, created by wildfire, with grasses which the sparrows feed on. I had looked for this sparrow a few times before and last week hiked 9 miles with no luck. So on April 2nd, I woke up at 5 am and drove to the park to get there right when it opens at 8am. When I got to the pine forest section of the park I thought I heard one, and then when I got to the trail I could hear a few! I started hiking and could hear the birds but I couldn't spot any of the singing birds. The song is a two note whistle followed by a trill, quite loud and beautiful. The songs were coming from a few different directions but were two far off the trail. So I continued to hike and came to a spot where songs were coming from both sides of the trail, and one pretty close. I spotted the bird in a small shrub that was just peaking over the palmettos.
Above: You can see the Bachman's Sparrow from his singing perch.
As I was taking the above photo, the bird flew off in my direction and landed in a patch of palmettos. It was hidden very well in the grasses and the shade of the palmetto fronds, but luckily he peeked out and started hopping across the ground through the grasses.
This bird was banded on both legs. The other legs had a blue band over the silver metal band.
He stayed in a grassy patch for a moment. I was staying very still in hopes he would come out more. Two people on the trail passed by behind me and he didn't fly away. After another moment he flew up to the remains of a charred pine and then up to the lower branches of a pine.
So it was a really good day! To see my lifer Bachman's Sparrow. This is going to be my next carving that I'll be working on this month. I'm headed to the western side of Florida near the Sarasota area and will be looking for Bachman's Sparrows there too. Stay tuned!
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