Reeds in a Half Nelson

Hope everyone’s year is going smoothly so far. As for me, I am having my worst start to birding since we started the Average Year competition some 4 years ago (link here). The count sits at 86+2 provisionals which is not that impressive when you think of south Texas, but truth is, I have been able to pick up some key checks that would normally be reserved for our Arizona trip. Especially important for this year as we are replacing that annual spring trip with a run up to the Northwest for this year’s CPE Agility Nationals competition. As a bit of compensation, we went further west into Texas this year (Big Bend National Park). Now we are heading back to our more traditional Rio Grande Valley stomping grounds. While on my first run of the year today, I was thinking about what to feature for my first post of 2026…what do I follow a Koala Bear with…hmmm.. clearly nothing..were talking about a Koala folks ha! I can’t get to that level of cuteness, but we can go with another first for Intrigue.

Yes, there are Sparrows out there we haven’t covered yet – hit the jump to learn more about this oddly colored member of the Passerellidae family .

That there is really the last decent shot you are going to see in this series….did I mention Koala Bears!?! With the previous “adorbs” distraction, I decided I could get away with a clever sleight of hand and sneak in some subpar technical execution in favor of bringing you a lifer.

In my defense, this Nelson’s Sparrow is in the challenge level of Bri’s bird difficulty scale – a highly complex classification system combining science, mathematics, monetary investment, behaviorism and historical levels of expletive generation in quest to tin a particular species of bird. The Nelson’s has a very limited range in the US. They breed primarily in Canada with a slight dip into South Dakota and northern Minnesota. Their non-breeding region is basically the coastlines of the southeast along the Gulf of America and half way up the eastern seawall. I’ve been hunting for this Sparrow since we started snowbirding along the Gulf..hunting and hunting and hunting and not a single looksee.

How hard could it possibly be to find an orange (saffron-yellow per Cornell’s description), grey, brown and white bird. Answer is staring you in the face – notice how well these colors blend in with the reeds along the Bolivar Peninsula.

This would be a good time to mention where the tinning took place. I’ve mentioned Bolivar Flats many times on the wildlife side of Intrigued. This is a staple for every trip agenda we make for our winter migration. If you are in/near Galveston Island and want a premier place to bird, the Bolivar Flats/Audubon Shorebird Sanctuary is a fine choice. Unless you truly enjoy walking good distances on the beach, you might want to pick up a beach parking pass at a nearby grocery store or online. This will allow you to drive quite a ways down the beach to a series of posts that mark the beginning of the sanctuary. Mind you, there is still plenty of beach to explore past that point.

The entire time you are walking the beach, keep a very close eye on the reeds to the right. There is plenty of activity in ‘dem reeds and brush…your mission should you accept it .. get something respectable in the tin. The floor of my digital darkroom is covered with shutter frustration. Last January brought a surprising moment of success (as in 2025 – for a brief moment during my ankle recovery the backlog was limited to the current year…time has no compassion for the busy).

Males and female Nelson’s look the same, so no ability to say for certain the gender of this specimen. Typically, it is the males that call/sing what Cornell characterizes as “A raspy pssssssssssstk, sounding like a short burst of steam escaping a pipe”. Unfortunately, this bird didn’t utter a peep the entire time I was taking shots of it, so even that tell didn’t help in gendering.

Should probably note for our Atlantic Coast readers out there, the coloring on the “Interior” (read Gulf) residents are more brilliant versus the more muted coloring on the east coast – sorry folks, going to be even harder to pick these out of the marsh.

Seem’s I am all out of cluttered and obstructed shots of this elusive Sparrow. How about a couple quick tidbits before we get you back on your way. First, the Nelson’s was referred to as the Sharp-tailed Sparrow until 1998 when it was still combined with the Saltmarsh Sparrow which looks very similar without the heavy saffron-yellow breast/bib. Lastly, the Nelson’s moniker is in tribute to Edward William Nelson, a US Department of Agriculture chief for the Bureau of Biological Surveys from 1916 to 1927 (per Cornell).

Hope this post wasn’t too much of a letdown after the Australian cuddle bears in Brad’s last post. Don’t worry, there are plenty more stories coming from their “Down Under” field trip. Take care everyone, tomorrow we make another attempt at getting a bird that is also in my “Challenge” category. I’ll let you know if I succeed, if not, this conversation never happened.