April 27, 2025, began as an overcast day and I was hopeful that I might have a good afternoon of birding photography.  Shortly after midday, the sun broke through and we ended up having a cloudless sky for the afternoon. I began sitting in the yard about 4pm and by 5pm there had been very few birds enter the yard.

On a couple of occasions, I observed a small sparrow-like bird hopping around the yard and it piqued my curiosity for two reasons; 

• It was almost certainly a sparrow (feeding on the ground) yet I couldn’t readily identify it; 
• It was always alone in the yard with no other birds around. 

Finally, a little after 5pm the bird emerged into the open at my nearest water feature where I was able to observe and photograph it at length (105 photos, 32 of which I retained!). I was ecstatic!  The bird appeared to be a Lincoln’s sparrow, but I was somewhat uncertain since I hadn’t seen one in several years and I could never remember having seen one in the yard.

At 6pm I retired from the yard and immediately began processing my photos, discovering that it was indeed a Lincoln‘s sparrow!  I’ve lived at this address for 17 years and I’m virtually certain that I’ve never seen a Lincoln’s sparrow in the yard!