Friday, April 25, 2014

More Maps - The Sparrow Formerly Known As Sage

Some time back, I posted the Gray Vireo maps, and then couldn’t resist mapping Sagebrush/Bell’s Sparrows.   Between the Breeding Bird Atlas and the Nevada Bird Count, we have a lot of location records within the Great Basin; fewer within the Mojave Desert.  The data aren’t mapped separately by species, since they were collected as “Sage” Sparrows.  Precisely where the two species “meet” within Nevada is unknown (except for the region near Bishop), but it’s certainly fun to stare at maps and speculate … and then even more fun to head out into the field and investigate!

Next month, we'll be doing some banding, measuring, and hopefully recording of our birds breeding in the Mojave Desert - and then depending on how that goes, we'll also work our way north for aways, for as long as our time permits.   While out and about, if you find territorial "Sage" Sparrows - and even better, nest locations! - please do shoot me an email with the UTM and datum.  Thanks, and

Happy birding!
Jen

"Sage Sparrow" detections and breeding locations.

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