When native birds hang out in non-native plants

[Joel Geier]

This morning during some sparrow surveys I found a male Grasshopper Sparrow
singing on a grassland conservation site near Corvallis. He seemed to have
a well-defined territory, flying a circuit of four or five singing perches.

A pair of Vesper Sparrows were not far away, with the male also making his
rounds.

For folks who work on native habitat restoration, there's always a twinge
of disappointment when you find a nice bird like this that doesn't seem to
care about native plants, so much as the structure of the habitat.

See if you can spot any native plants in these sparrow photos, I sure can't!
However,to the Vesper Sparrows' credit, they seemed to be using a nicer patch
of ground for foraging (a dried-up wetland/wet prairie area).

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis