My friends Jay Carlisle, Heidi Ware Carlisle, and I had a Melospiza morning at Ted Trueblood WMA, helping Boise State grad student Kate Owens and her fiance Ben trap Song Sparrows for Kate’s Master’s work. The highlight was catching 27 Melospiza sparrows at once, including 10 Swamp Sparrows (M. georgiana), 5 Lincoln’s Sparrows (M. Lincolnii), and 12 Song Sparrows (M. melodia). The incredible number of Swamp Sparrows left us reeling, since we had visited the area twice already this fall for Southwestern Idaho Birder’s Association and Golden Eagle Audubon Society field trips. Our first visit yielded no Swamp Sparrows, and a week ago we detected only 4 individuals (a high count for the site at the time). While processing our 10 Swamps, two remained in the reeds nearby calling, providing us a total of 12 Swamp Sparrow’s for the site! All Swamp Sparrows were young of the year, likely indicative of a productive breeding season for the species. Also notable, all birds had good fat and muscle scores which is indicative of good health, and upon release flew away with vigor.

Ted Trueblood WMA has been very generous to us in the past, hosting two of the three Idaho state records for Le Conte’s Sparrow. It continues to be a state sparrow mecca with this incredible high number for Swamp Sparrow, and who knows what will turn up in the future.

I’ve included here some photos of our morning, including a photo of four Swamp Sparrows at once, and a photo of all three members of Melospiza aside a painting I illustrated of the genus (by the way these prints are available in the shop). You can also see our numbers for the site and other species we documented, including a conservative estimate of American Tree Sparrow (Spizelloides arborea) on our eBird list:

Photo: Heidi Ware Carlisle