Backyard rarity yay!

[cairnstone]

Being stuck at home is not all bad. I just got a Lincoln's Sparrow in the backyard. Rare at this time of the year in Ontario from what I can gather. Here's a photo through the window: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S66439925

[Shortsighted]

Wow, your bird beats my bird.
I fold.

[cairnstone]

It's too bad you folded Shortsighted. I could have raised you a Chipping Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, Eastern Phoebe and a couple of Brown Creepers.

[Shortsighted]

I don't want to play with you anymore.

[Dinusaur]

I had a pretender in the form of a Song Sparrow, Lincoln would've been nice.

[Dr. John]

We've never even seen a Lincoln sparrow, never mind in our backyard.  We have had a song sparrow overwintering around our backyard.  We get some white throats regularly.  Very occasionally we have had American tree, chipping, white crowned, and fox.  I think that is it for backyard sparrows.

[cairnstone]

I had a second Lincoln's Sparrow today. I generally get one or two a year during migration, but never this early. They can be easily overlooked as they blend into the drab early spring landscape, but they stand out when they raise their crests.

[Shortsighted]

Lucky you!
It begs the question though, what were you doing to raise its ire?
Oh, right. You have two of them. Male and female? Frisky and friskier?
Perhaps they are both male in the same territory.
Either way, crest-raising circumstances for sure.

[Shortsighted]

Dr. John, I once thought that I might never see a Lincoln sparrow too. Imagine my surprise when I spotted my first Lincoln on a dull drizzly morning while waiting at a bus shelter. There, in the wet grass beside a garbage bin was a Lincoln sparrow. Then the bus came and it took flight. About a year later I got a better and more prolonged look at a Lincoln sparrow very shortly after arriving at the wet woods of the base-lands of the Leslie street spit. There was mud everywhere. Right down beside my right rubber boot something moved silently and that event turned out to produce my first photo of a Lincoln sparrow.


I also saw a Lincoln on a subsequent visit when it was not quite so muddy and it hung around the grass edges of the foot path


I’ve seen them a few times since then at Ashbridges Bay spit. I had a close encounter with a Lincoln sparrow at Ashbridges one spring morning and I was not ready for it. I managed a shot in what seemed like a nanosecond but the exposure was not ideal. In almost every case they were hanging around boulders near the water’s edge.

[Dr. John]

I probably need to take a closer look at sparrows to make sure I am not missing one that turns out to be a Lincoln when I don't expect it, given your experience.

[cairnstone]

I am still getting visited by a Lincoln's Sparrow for the eighth consecutive day now. I have no idea if it's the same individual or others passing through. I have seen at least 2 others in nearby Norton Park along the entrance driveway and the asphalt path that spans the length of the park. Seems to be the year of the Lincoln's Sparrow around here.

[Axeman]

Thanks for posting those great pix! I recognize that bird!