Sage and Brewer's Sparrows, Wilbarger County

[Quaker]

All,

Today, 12-26-11, Blaine Carnes, Ed Wetzel, and myself Ventured out Wilbarger County in search of some western NCTX specialties like Ferruginous Hawk. What we found instead was an extremely rare regional record of Brewer's Sparrow and a first regional record of Sage Sparrow.
The Brewer's Sparrow was found first, along CR 85 SW of Vernon in Wilbarger County. The Brewer's was keeping company with a small group of White-crowned Sparrows.
Later in the morning, after finding a Sage Thrasher (rare record for the county) on CR 81 S we came across the Sage Sparrow running along the roadside (clay dirt road).
Both rare species of sparrows posed long enough to get identifiable photos for record purposes.
I know that Wilbarger is a long drive form the metroplex so I won't go into details as to exactly where we saw, but if anybody would like the specifics please email me at quaker1308@yahoo.com and I will provide them.

Other birds of note out there were:
Mountain Bluebird - 19 in 2 different places
Sandhill Crane - 10,000+
McCown's Longspurs - 300-400 longspurs, only mcCwon's ID'ed

Greg Cook
Arlington, TX

[lulubelle]

Excellent finds Greg! Certainly made your travels worth it! I am curious, how do you plan your driving agenda for the outing? Only asking because I tried a bit of back road birding when I went to Lubbock, but ended up with little seen for my efforts.

[Sngcanary]

Wow, Greg. That is a really impressive find. I am not aware of any records of Sage Sparrow outside of the Trans-pecos.

[Y Cymry]

Yes, Sage Sparrow is a great find. It wasn't even on my radar screen for possible birds to show up in NCTX. But this is an exceptional year for western birds so who knows what else will turn up.

[Quaker]

I have put 2 photos of the Sage Sparrow and 1 of the Brewer's Sparrow in the picture gallery.

Greg Cook
Arlington, TX

[camcar]

What an exceptional find!

Sage Sparrow is rare in the South Plains(Lubbock area), but is found in small numbers in the Midland area. Most South Plains records come from counties along the New Mexico border, but a few have been found in Crosby Co. Records seem to be tied to drought in the South Plains. When we are in drought years we are more likely to find them. Records from South Plains counties would probably be more numerous, but suitable habitat for Sage Sparrow is extremely underbirded.

Cameron