Nelson's Sparrow at Plumb Beach - 9th October

After last week's failure I headed down to Plumb Beach to try and find Nelson's Sparrow. The weather was pretty horrible, but I prevailed, and, close to the outlet of the stream I started to find some sparrows. The birds were pretty flighty, and not inclined to sit at the top of the grass stems for very long, but I did find 5 birds, two of which sat still long enough to confirm that yes, they were Nelson's Sparrow. Unfortunately the birds I could photograph were not exactly classic, at best Saltmarsh/ Nelson's hybrids.

Compared to the Saltmarsh from last week this bird has a smaller bill and less brightly coloured malar stripe but the flank streaking should be more smudged.

The white belly is also more clearly defined, and the background colour of the breast and flanks is less white, and more buffy. Still