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.
Wildlife Intrigued 
Wonderful photos. Is Nelson only half the bird he used to be? Northwest Agility. Sounds like Boy’s big adventure! I hope the boys know how to dance on their tiptoes to “Tequila” in case you run into trouble with some bikers on your big adventure.
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Maybe half of the Nelson twins…Can’t Live Without Your Feathers and Affection. The boys have been practicing their Spanish in case something goes south.. remember, send “lawyers guns and money”
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¡Aye Chihuahua! ¡Los hombres perros aprenden español a comunicado con narcos traficanos Chihuahuanos! Yip! Yip! Yippy-aye-A! And maybe send some Werewolves from London, also.
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Badges, we don’t need no sticking badges…I figured you would get my Zevon reference – great minds…
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Another classic quote. Almost always lost on the younger generation and often corrected by sorry grammar Nazis.
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I’ve never seen one of these birds, but what a beautiful sparrow it is! The yellow is so rich. Great close up shots, especially through the grasses.
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For such a beautiful Sparrow, they certainly do not want to be seen much. Don’t remember how many years I’ve been chasing this orange bird. Cutting through all the reeds was quite the chore, but very happy I was at least able to get you some shots worthy of your attention – big glass never likes those cluttered settings. Take care and thanks for coming by – down here in the south getting all kinds of new fodder for upcoming posts.
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You can’t always get ‘lifers’ to pose beautifully out in the open B (unlike in my last post, which you haven’t even read yet, ha ha ).
They are great shots. If that’s their chosen habitat getting a focus point on a bird, not reed or branch, is an achievment. Don’t fuss over year listing numbers, just enjoy whatever comes along, lifes too short.
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I am so far behind on my blog reading it is embarrassing – at the end of every day down in the Rio Grande Valley I am completely exhausted from all the bird hunts – hard to explain to people that our days in the field here are a lot of work as we try our best to see what there is to offer on the border – got to get those hoppers full so I have something to bring my readers the rest of the year. Ron was able to join us for the last four days so that has been incredibly fun – he flew back to the Midwest tundra tonight. I do have to admit that this has been a down year for rarities which has been a bit disappointing. I did manage to find a Cape May Warbler near San Antonio (3rd sighting ever there) and found a Burrowing Owl that no one was aware of – Linda named it Squishy. Apologies for the late response and promises I’ll find time to get caught up on you adventures.
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Requesting a special blog post of this year’s CPE Agility Nationals competition of your doggos! A short video clip would be extra treat!! Yorkie and I will be waiting with our ears perked and eyes wide open!!!
The Nelson’s Sparrow in the camouflage weeds is a wonderful find. I enjoyed the series especially the last lift off to go! 😊
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Will do TD, although we usually put those up on our mothership blog, but I’ll put an announcement on the wild side when we get those posted – the Boys need to get back to training, they are getting soft vacationing down here in the valley ha. Ruger did compete in a local FastCAT competition (100 yard dash) last week and that has him all excited for nationals now. As I mentioned to another commenter, for such a pretty Sparrow it sure did not want to be seen – took everything I had just to get these cluttered shots. Fortunately, you get a feel for what the Sparrow looks like and the type of settings they like to hang in. Appreciate you coming by and stay tuned for the Nationals update later in the year.
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I don’t know anything about your mothership blog. Perhaps a link will help this not so today’s tech savvy reader when the time comes. Your dogs sound like tons of fun!
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The Mothership (LifeIntrigued.com) is our original blog, we broke the wild side out so it wouldn’t clutter up the experience for our wildlife readers – like the ultra-running recaps, human behavior analysis (the catalyst for this whole endeavor) and, of course, the haunt side of Intrigued. We replicate our wildlife posts to both blogs and we try to keep most of the discussions on this side – I’ll put a link in one of the wild side posts when we add the dog show recaps.
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Will do!
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This sparrow is wonderful – who knew such bright colors could grace “another LBJ” (Little Brown Job). And I just love your environmental photos – seeing the bird half camoflauged in the yellow, brown and black coastal plants made him very lifelike and shows me exactly what to look for on my next trip to the Flats.
LMAO over your Bird Difficulty Scale! I’m still in the stage of birdwatching where I am over the moon on everything I find, not yet actually searching for a given species, but I can attest, that scale works equally well for “difficulty of seeing anything“!
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Good luck on your next Flats visit. It was probably there every time I was, but camo’d so well I didn’t see it. For reference, this one was about 150 feet from the pillars. Hahaha, the BDS just might be a universal scale for life. Today I was cussing up a storm trying to find a couple of birds that were reported near us – of course the submitters didn’t bother to provide any helpful detail in their description so Linda and I wasted our entire morning chasing ghosts…ironically, one was a new Sparrow that would have been a lifer. I see you have made some post lately, I need to get caught up on those – been so exhausted lately I’ve been falling asleep with my eyes open. Hit 199 species for the year today and now #45 on the top Texas Birder List. Take care!
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Hey, doesn’t that bird have a column in Trafalgar Square in London? Nice job getting between the reeds for clear photos. I can only imagine how many hit the digital darkroom floor. You have a good eye to be able to spot these LBJ’s amongst reeds and grass and twigs.
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I think luck probably prevailed over talent in this situation, but over the years I have developed a better eye for the disguised. With that said, today I absolutely failed to find a Sparrow lifer I was after so more work needed ha. How was the earthquake they had down near Spfld?
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Didn’t feel a thing at the regional office here. Not like the one further downstate a few years prior. That one shook the doors in their frames.
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Good to here, we don’t want things happening around the HQ unless I am around.
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Nice images, Brian. Once one is able to to see what’s there, it does a fairly nice job of blending in to its surroundings, even with “brighter” colors. Shooting through reeds is tough, as is tall grass which is plenty around Siouxland. And being a Contrarian, the Gulf of Mexico, one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. SMILE…….
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Thank you Jerry! As they say, long glass and tall grass don’t mix well. Per the Gulf…I’m a when in Rome guy so I’ll stick with the current terminology (that and I’m tired of typing “/Mexico” as I’ve do in my other posts ha. It won’t be long before it is called the Gulf of Starbase. Appreciate you coming by and big apologies for the delayed response, it’s a lot of work filling up the hopper to make sure I have content to keep everyone entertained for the year.
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