Black-Throated Sparrow

Figure 1. Black-Throated Sparrow, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, CA.

Since I have moved to San Diego, I went to Anza-Borrego Desert Park quite often. It is a two hour drive from San Diego. Winter is more popular than summer in this desert area. The temperature can hit enjoyable 80s in February.

My reason to go to this state park is to see the endangered bighorn sheep. It was categorized as Peninsular bighorn sheep. It is now considered the same as desert bighorn sheep. Because of the northern end of the Peninsular Range, it is still called Peninsular bighorn sheep or Peninsular desert bighorn sheep.

The popular place to see this Peninsular bighorn sheep is the Borrego Palm Canyon Trail. In winter months, you can see families, friends and couples hike this 3 mile round trip trail. In addition to bighorn sheep, you may see some birds. One time when I was at the bridge after marker 10, I saw a bird in the tree. Usually this size of bird would fly away at a distance like that. But when you are out there often, something unexpected would happen like this time. This bird was just cooperative and stayed put. I have plenty of time to adjust my position and get a little closer to get a shot of it. This is a typical bird shot with good bokeh, background and reasonable sharpness. It is not easy to use a 400mm lens for a quality like this, and I don't have many shots like this one as this is not my focus. But when I get the opportunity, I'll just take it.

The best thing is I did see a Peninsular bighorn sheep, and it's a big ram, after seeing this black-throated sparrow. While I just saw a sparrow and a sheep, it is worth the 3 mile hike and 4 hour drive.