Centennial Valley Savannah Sparrow

Centennial Valley Savannah Sparrow perched on Greasewood – Nikon D500, f9, 1/640, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

Some of the birds I see often while at the Lower Lake of Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Montana are Savannah Sparrows and I love to photograph them there. It doesn’t matter to me if they are perched on the fences,  sagebrush, grasses, on the ground, or on the greasewoods near the campground. I just love to photograph these delightful sparrows. Savannah Sparrows are a bird I usually hear before I see them and that lets me know they are in the area.

Listen to a Savannah Sparrow singing here.

I love that little buzzy sound you can hear in the middle of their songs.

The habitat at the Lower Lake seems perfect for Savannah Sparrows, there are plenty of grassy fields, wet areas in the spring and the lakes edges where I see them lurking in the vegetation. There seems to be large quantities of food available to them with plentiful grasshoppers and caterpillars and at the lake shore they snatch up damselfly and dragonfly nymphs emerging from the water.

It is a good thing there is plenty of food available near the lake because the females need to gather 10 times her weight in prey during the 8 days her chicks are in the nest. That has to keep her very busy!

I photographed this Savannah Sparrow on my trip to Montana and Idaho earlier this month just outside of the fence that encloses the campground at the Lower Lake, I loved the silky background and the over the shoulder look I got from the sparrow. It didn’t hang around on the greasewood long but it was long enough to obtain several lovely images.

Life is good.

Mia

Click here to see more of my Savannah Sparrow photos plus facts and information about this species.