Heard reports of an interior (A. n. nelsoni) Nelson’s sparrow that had stopped in Bunker Nature Preserve during migration. Had written off this bird as likely to be gone by the time I went there but it had continued for a week so I decided to go and look. Had not been to Bunker before, so went searching around trails surrounding ponds.

Encountered birder who said he thought the Nelson’s sparrow was gone, as it hadn’t been seen by anyone since that morning. I thought this line of thinking odd because songbirds mainly travel at night during migration.

Found, somewhat impressively but also somewhat annoyingly, nearly every sort of New World sparrow found in Michigan that I’d already seen (exceptions being chipping sparrow and eastern towhee, as well as junco and tree sparrow which are not expected to have arrived yet): white-crowned, white-throated, savannah, swamp, song, field, Lincoln’s, even a clay-colored sparrow that got flagged on eBird and that I got an email about asking for confirmation — the next day seven other birders at Bunker reported the same so I’m pretty confident in my ID here.

Found odd mixed group of waxwings and yellow-rumped warblers in fruit-trees on east edge of pond.

Eventually found a group of birders off the path in a reed-bed on west edge of the big pond. Joined them. None had seen the Nelson’s sparrow but they were monitoring a stand of willow trees where it was often seen. I stayed with them for about half an hour, but didn’t see the sparrow.

I walked the south path which led to the back end of the willow stand; did not see sparrow but did find an eastern phoebe.

Left at 7:00 pm; was dismayed next morning to hear that the Nelson’s sparrow had shown itself about fifteen minutes later.