First of Season Sage-brush Sparrow, Torrance County - 2/28/15

I was feeling pretty bad as the flu was coming on fast and furious, but I decided to take a ride down to the ag fields in southern Santa Fe County and extreme northern Torrance County. If you look on Google Maps it is CR 23 which runs between Moriarty (Torrance) and SR 8 (Santa Fe). 

The main purpose was to look for longspurs as we FINALLY had some snow and you have to have snow covered farm fields in order to find them. Actually finding the longspurs was easy and I had all three species in Santa Fe County. But much more on that in my next post!

First I want to share this very cooperative Sage-brush Sparrow. Of course I love any sparrow, but these guys are high on the list of my favorites. 

Sage-brush sparrows are hard to find and there is a narrow window to find them in early spring and very sporadically in fall. This one was hanging out with a large flock of White-crowned Sparrows. Enjoy!

Sage-brush Sparrow