{"id":107670,"date":"2022-11-01T04:28:41","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T10:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=107670"},"modified":"2022-11-02T03:14:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-02T09:14:23","slug":"surprise-swamp-sparrow-at-bear-river-mbr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/11\/01\/surprise-swamp-sparrow-at-bear-river-mbr\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise Swamp Sparrow At Bear River MBR"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge<\/span><\/a> yesterday morning, I was surprised to find a Swamp Sparrow near the far southern corner of the auto tour loop.<\/p>\n

\"SwampSwamp Sparrow at Bear River MBR \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Swamp Sparrows are rare winter visitors to Utah and this is the first one that I have found since I moved here in 2009. I saw this species regularly during the winter in Florida.<\/p>\n

I had stopped my Jeep at a stand of mixed phragmites and rushes because I could hear and see Song Sparrows. Then I saw a flash from the rust-colored wings of the Swamp Sparrow and trained my lens on this individual bird.<\/p>\n

\"RearRear view of Swamp Sparrow on Halloween \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I would have let out a whoop of joy except I didn’t want to flush this uncommon species from the fluffy seedheads of the phrags.<\/p>\n

The Swamp Sparrow was further away from me than I would have liked which means these images are primarily for documentary purposes. I would have loved to have gotten frame filling photos of this sparrow.<\/p>\n

\"ForagingForaging Swamp Sparrow at Bear River MBR \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

If I hadn’t stopped at this stand of vegetation and been still for the length of time that I sat there I would never have found this uncommon sparrow.<\/p>\n

After the Swamp Sparrow flew off I finally remembered that I needed to breathe. I took a deep breath and let out the whoop of joy that I had been suppressing. Yeah, baby! What a great treat I had for Halloween!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Swamp Sparrow photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge yesterday morning, I was surprised to find a Swamp Sparrow near the far southern corner of the auto tour loop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,27,1148,13425,26],"tags":[4004,970,4620,4136,4094,13426,4059,6428,1902,13429,855,4195,13427,6420,4095],"class_list":["post-107670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-swamp-sparrows","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-autumn","tag-fall","tag-foraging","tag-marsh","tag-melospiza-georgiana","tag-phragmites","tag-phrags","tag-rare","tag-rear-view","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-swamp-sparrow","tag-uncommon","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/swamp-sparrow-bear-river-mbr-mia-mcpherson-3296.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-s0C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":107749,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/11\/05\/marsh-wren-at-bear-river-mbr\/","url_meta":{"origin":107670,"position":0},"title":"Marsh 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McPherson","date":"November 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday while at Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, I was tickled to take photos of a Swamp Sparrow perched on a Smooth Sumac branch in early morning light.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Swamp Sparrow perched on a sumac branch, Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge, Oklahoma","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/swamp-sparrow-autumn-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-9764.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/swamp-sparrow-autumn-sequoyah-mia-mcpherson-9764.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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