We had a great time at our Bexar Audubon Society Winter Bird Bioblitz, the second Saturday in January of 2023. Eight participants observed 36 species and probably 1000 birds, between 8 and 10 am. Some of the highlights for me were the Northern Harrier, who has become our regular winter visitor for the past five years; two Red-tailed Hawks, seated in the live oak tree across the field; and two Lesser Goldfinches, male and female, perched on the spent basil plants in our garden, gorging themselves on the seeds. But by far the stars of the show were the hundreds of sparrows filling the prairie grasses. We saw Savannah Sparrows, Vesper Sparrows, House Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, LeConte’s Sparrows, Grasshopper Sparrows, Field Sparrows, Song Sparrows, and Lincoln Sparrows.
Several of the volunteers from the Bexar Audubon Society carried cameras and scopes, and we got to see the sparrows up close and personal.
Here are some photos that were made during the morning.
Sparrows, small and drably colored, are often lumped together as little brown birds (LBBs). However, to more trained and attentive eyes their shape, coloration, markings, sounds, and flight patterns are unique and quite stunning.
We were gifted this 434-page book about sparrows from a birding friend of ours—Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America by Rick Wright. The back of the dustcover notes that “sparrows are as complicated as they are common.” It appears to me that the same thing could be said of us Homo sapiens—as complicated as we are common.
Jesus made a similar observation, viewing us with the same kind of eyes that these experienced Audubon birders viewed the sparrows flitting around in our prairie last weekend, noting the streaks on their heads, the shapes of the feathers on their cheeks, the lengths of their tails, the blushes of color on their chests. In Luke 12: 6-7, Jesus assures us that even the common sparrows garner the attention of the Father, and that, likewise, he counts us worthy of his attention, attending to our complexities, down to the number of hairs on our head.
It seems to me, that kind of attention is something to rest on and to practice.
