{"id":53673,"date":"2018-08-22T05:43:09","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T11:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=53673"},"modified":"2025-10-16T15:44:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T20:44:55","slug":"creekside-adult-song-sparrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/08\/22\/creekside-adult-song-sparrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Creekside Adult Song Sparrow – Photographed To Preserve A Memory And Nothing More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AdultAdult Song Sparrow at the edge of a creek – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 640, -0.7 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

When I was a young child if<\/em> there were creeks where I lived that is where I could usually be found watching the birds and creatures that made creekside living look like so much fun or I’d splash around in the creek with bare feet gleefully aware of what a joy it was to be “wild child” and a part of nature.<\/p>\n

I still enjoy sitting quietly watching a creek flow by, listening to the sound of the water and observing what birds and wildlife I am fortunate enough to see and I still savor having my feet in the living, moving water. It soothes, relaxes and speaks to me.<\/p>\n

Last week I had parked my Jeep next to a creek in a Wasatch Mountain canyon while looking for birds to photograph. I sat for a bit just listening to the slow moving water, watching the leaves of the willows flutter in the light breeze and my eyes happily followed the movements of the nearby birds, it was so peaceful and I soaked that feeling in like a dry sponge pulls water into its cells.<\/p>\n

As I sat creekside in my Jeep an adult Song Sparrow<\/span><\/a> flew in, landed and began hopping around looking for food for breakfast in the vegetation floating on the water at the edge of the creek.<\/p>\n

I never got a view of the sparrow where it wasn’t behind the vegetation or where shadows of the vegetation didn’t fall on the sparrow but I photographed it anyway.<\/p>\n

This isn’t the kind of photo that will make it onto the cover of a magazine or into the pages of a guide book and I am okay with that.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of photo that I will look at and remember the peaceful feeling I felt while I photographed this small bird going about its life and I am 100% okay with that. Sometimes my photos are taken to preserve a memory and nothing more.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

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

As I sat creekside in my Jeep an adult Song Sparrow flew in, landed and began hopping around looking for food for breakfast in the vegetation floating on the water at the edge of the creek. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160594,"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":[27,4594,204,26,773],"tags":[4004,3940,3843,4109,4202,4069,4023,855,4195,2315,3996],"class_list":["post-53673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-morgan-county","category-song-sparrows","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-canyon","tag-creek","tag-grasses","tag-melospiza-melodia","tag-mountains","tag-song-sparrow","tag-sparrow","tag-sparrows","tag-summer-3","tag-water"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/song-sparrow-creek-side-mia-mcpherson-5734.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dXH","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":115165,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/08\/13\/immature-song-sparrow-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":53673,"position":0},"title":"Immature 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2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Any day now I should spot my first of season fledgling Song Sparrow exploring their world and learning how to find food on their own.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fledgling Song Sparrow eating at the edge of a creek, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/song-sparrow-juvenile-creek-mia-mcpherson-5973.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/song-sparrow-juvenile-creek-mia-mcpherson-5973.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/song-sparrow-juvenile-creek-mia-mcpherson-5973.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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McPherson","date":"July 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Just a few days ago I was listening to Song Sparrows singing on the East Coast and yesterday I was listening to them singing in a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Back side view of a Song Sparrow, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/song-sparrow-adult-back-view-mia-mcpherson-7140.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/song-sparrow-adult-back-view-mia-mcpherson-7140.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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