The grasslands in the fields at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm are prime habitat for Savannah sparrows, and I never tire of taking photos of them. This morning, I found the one topping this post in a tree at the history exhibit for the AT&T radio telephone years that spanned much of the 20th century.
A few days ago, I got what I consider one of my best shots of the species. The light was golden that morning, bringing out the yellow marking just above the bird’s eye. The sunlight warmed the grasses around the bird, too. I thought a vertical crop most effectively displayed it.
I’ve always figured that Savannah sparrows were named for the savannah-like grasslands that they frequent. I typically have kept the “s” in savannah lower case in most of my posts. But there are some cases in which I capitalized that “s,” and not just when beginning a sentence with the word.
This evening, I looked it up. The “s” should be capitalized, because the bird is named for Savannah, Georgia, where it was cataloged years ago. So to those Savannahs to which I referred in the lower case, I apologize.
I saw another Savannah late this afternoon when I went back to the Pole Farm in hopes of spotting a short-eared owl shortly after sunset. I didn’t bother taking my camera, because, owl or no owl, the light would be poor.
To my surprise, a Savannah sparrow flew in front of me shortly after I arrived and briefly foraged on the ground, not far from where I’d photographed the Savannah earlier in the day. I suggested to the little guy or gal to settle down for the night.
Northern harriers (I counted five) were doing their sunset flights for their final mouse morsels of the day. Two other birders with big camera lenses came down the central path about 15 minutes after sunset. A few minutes later, one of them cried out — a short-eared owl was flying not far from us.
The owl disappeared, then a few minutes later turned up across the field, jousting briefly with another shortie. It was a thrill to see them, our first of the season. We watched them intermittently for a few minutes as we made our way to the parking lot.
The owls are relatively rare and dramatic. I revel equally in the sight of the Savannah sparrow — a capital bird, one might say. 🦅
The Jersey Birder 
Dan, your observational skills are much better than mine. I have a tough time telling Savannah sparrows apart from Song sparrows. They look so similar.
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They are very similar. For me, the key field marks are the chest “dot” on the Songs and the yellow mark (not always visible) on the Savannah.
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