Henslow's Sparrows at the Resilience Preserve

 

The Arc of Appalachia's 525-acre Resilience Preserve in Hocking County, Ohio. The property has had a rough past, including logging (multiple times) and surface mining. Unlike most of the Arc's other properties, this site is not some pristine natural area although the surrounding woodlands are fairly mature and will only improve with age. Other than scattered young Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana), hardly any of the dominant vegetation in the meadows is native. Fescues dominate, along with large patches of Chinese lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata). The latter is a legume, does well in poor heavily disturbed soil, and was heavily used in the "reclamation" process. This is not really reclamation though, it's damage mitigation. Nonetheless, this formerly mined site is now far better for fauna than it was immediately post-mining when it would have been a lunar wasteland.

One very special animal that has taken a shine to this site - and many other so-called reclaimed mine sites - is the Henslow's Sparrow (Centronyx henslowii). Shauna and I visited Resilience yesterday morning (April 11, 2026) to admire these handsome sparrows and try for some imagery.

As always, click the photo to enlarge

A male Henslow's Sparrow sings from within the grasses, near ground level. This species is often referred to as "shy" and "retiring", but that's not really the case. They are birds with a preference for treeless densely grassed sites with heavy duff layers. Note the size of the sparrow's feet and claws. This is a species that spends much time on or near the ground, foraging in dense vegetation. It's not so much shy and retiring as it is a bird that just spends much time in situations where it is hard/impossible to see them. As we will see, Henslow's Sparrows sometimes sing from conspicuous perches and as long as the observer is quiet and deliberate in their movements, these sparrows are often quite tame and easily approached.

Yesterday morning was perfect for bird photography - mostly sunny with light winds. We arrived quite early, to capitalize on a few hours of perfect morning light. In the above photo, the red arrow points to a clump of multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora). Male Henslow's Sparrows frequently sing from the thorny tangles, in part because the nonnative rose provides an elevated perch in the grassy near monocultures that is the favored breeding habitat (at least in my neck of the woods).

Anyway, the rose shrub above hosted a singing sparrow and that's what we're focused on. Shauna has her Nikon Z8 and 180-600mm lens affixed on the target. I stepped back to iPhone the scene as it is instructive and might come in handy for one of my bird photography lectures. Note how our shadows point directly at the target - picture-perfect lighting. My rig is on the right, a Canon R5 bolted to a Canon 800mm f/5.6 prime lens. Sandwiched between the lens and camera is a 1.4x extender, which makes the lens good for 1120mm. That's a lot of reach but bigger is generally better when it comes to bird photography.

While the 1.4x extender generally works beautifully on most of the lenses that I want to use it on, it has a more finicky relationship with the 800mm lens. Bright sunny days with strong lighting on the subject is where this combination can really shine, and the remainder of the sparrow shots in this post were taken with this combination. The next image was either made from the spot above, or perhaps a bit closer, but still pretty far off and a Henslow's Sparrow is only 5 inches in length.

NOTES ON APPROACHING BIRDS: When approaching birds, a common tactic is to start shooting fairly far off, near the limits of camera reach. Then, I'll move a bit closer, shoot some more, then move a bit closer, etc. In the case of Henslow's Sparrow, they will allow for close approaches as long as the approacher is quiet, does not make sudden moves, and doesn't get too close. For me, a perfect shoot would be working my way in on the subject to the point that I do not need to be any closer, yet the bird is unfazed and continues to sing. I finish my shooting, slip away, and the bird is still on its singing perch.

Here's the very bird that the red arrow in the previous shot was pointing at. I don't think I shot it from the exact spot in the previous image, but after sidling a bit closer to the subject. But 1120mm allows the photographer to be pretty far away and still get imagery like this. As you may have noted, singing birds will often regularly shift position to better broadcast their songs in all directions. When this animal decided to position itself with its back to me, I was quite pleased. The ornate plumage and interesting coloration of the dorsal surface of a Henslow's Sparrow is a sight to behold.

A bit later, we ran across this fine chap, who had teed up on a barren stalk. This was an awesome setting, but the only issue at first was that the sparrow was facing the other way and that masked a lot of detail and presented an improper (to me, for artistic purposes) head angle. We were mostly seeing its back, and he was looking slightly away. But, as we knew he'd likely do, the bird eventually flipped itself 180 degrees and voila! Perfect angle from our elfin model. Note how his head is cocked in my direction about 5 degrees. That's about the perfect head angle from my perspective.

But this bird is just taking a brief respite from singing...

There it is - the shot that I really wanted. I was using a 9-frames per second burst mode, and when I saw he was just about to toss his olive head back and deliver its aria, I'd hold down the trigger and fire away. Only about three shots would feature obvious singing, so quick does the cricket-like 3/5ths of a second song pass (one of the shortest North American bird songs). Next time I shoot Henslow's Sparrows I'll probably use electronic shutter mode and 20 frames per second burst mode to better capture the whole performance but nonetheless I could still almost always get one shot like the above most times that I fired on singing birds.

Note the creamy brown bokeh (background). It's just browned senescent grasses, crushed into a smooth tan coloration by the big telephoto lens. Big telephotos blur the background like nothing else, and a plain background is great for putting all of the emphasis on the subject.

I heard something like two dozen singing Henslow's Sparrows at Resilience Preserve and they are quite easy to find. One must be familiar with their song to efficiently track birds down, but it is not a hard song to learn. GO HERE to hear it.

The Arc of Appalachia has many amazing preserves, and you can see the master list of their holdings RIGHT HERE. I'd highly recommend a visit to Resilience Preserve for sparrow enthusiasts and photographers with an itch to shoot North America's most beautiful sparrow. CLICK HERE for details on the preserve. 

Gray fox numbers falling, but Ohio still allows hunting

A gray fox takes stock of its surroundings in a southeast Ohio forest/Jim McCormac

Columbus Dispatch

April 5, 2026

NATURE

Jim McCormac

Prior to European settlement, when Ohio was 95% forested, the gray fox was the only fox species in the state, and it was undoubtedly common statewide. It wasn’t until the late 1700s that the first red foxes appeared in the state. Prior to that, red foxes were confined to more northerly latitudes. This species benefited from human activities such as forest clearing and persecution of apex predators, most notably the gray wolf, that allowed it to expand southward into new territory.

However, the foxy twain didn’t meet, at least much. Red fox prefers open country, while gray fox favors heavily wooded sites. Competition due to the red fox’s arrival probably had little if any impact on gray fox numbers.

Coyotes, which also expanded into Ohio much the same as the red fox did, didn’t appear until the mid-20th century. Even by the 1980s, coyotes were still actively expanding in Ohio and were nowhere near as common as they are now. Unlike the red fox, coyotes can and will prey opportunistically on gray fox but probably play little if any role in reducing their numbers. Gray foxes climb trees like cats and can easily elude ground-bound predators.

A major and abrupt decline in Ohio’s gray fox population began in the 1970s and continued into the early 1980s. The reason? A major trapping run, spurred by high fur prices. For about a decade – roughly mid-1970s to mid-1980s – gray fox pelt prices spiked, reaching a high of nearly $45 (about $180 in today’s dollars).

High pelt prices prompted trappers to target gray foxes (see attached graph, courtesy Appalachian Wildlife Research Institute), which by many estimates is one of the easier mammals to trap. This led to a wholesale slaughter of the small forest-going foxes (average weight is about 10-12 pounds). Between 1973 and 1983, nearly 250,000 gray foxes were trapped in Ohio alone. This caused an enormous reduction in gray fox numbers, and they never recovered.

The major gray fox decline correlates with an excessive trapping run in the 1970's-80's. Graph courtesy of the Appalachian Wildlife Research Institute

An abrupt and massive human-caused decline such as the gray fox trapping run makes a species far more vulnerable to other threats such as canine distemper and other diseases, predation, loss of genetic fitness and other detrimental factors. While virtually everyone familiar with gray fox agrees their numbers have plummeted and the decline continues, and biologists speculate on the causes, no one mentions the huge trapping run as a root cause. Indeed, much of the information from the wildlife management community uses 1990 as a starting point for gray fox discussion, thus conveniently ignoring previous history.

In wildlife management-speak, compensatory mortality essentially means “doomed surplus.” In other words, animals taken (“harvested” in game management jargon) by hunting/trapping would have died due to other causes anyway.

Additive mortality is when human-caused factors such as trapping directly decreases a population, removing individuals that otherwise would have survived. Given the now-tenuous status of Midwestern gray foxes, any unnecessary pressures on the population, such as hunting, are detrimental. That’s why the Illinois DNR, with the support of that state’s hunting and trapping community, banned gray fox hunting last year.

While the Ohio Division of Wildlife has instituted a study on gray foxes, they have not placed a moratorium on gray fox hunting. The season runs from Nov. 10 to Jan. 31. There is no bag limit, nor has there ever been one on foxes. That lack of limits is what allowed the mass slaughter of gray foxes during the aforementioned period of high pelt prices.

I would note that hunting regulations only reference “fox” lumping both gray and red fox together. That’s akin to comparing apples and oranges. Red fox is far more common and widespread than their very different gray fox counterpart. However, the methods used to trap foxes are essentially the same and it’s probably hard if not impossible to set traps that differentiate between the two species.

Despite gray fox being a legally huntable species, the Division of Wildlife lists it as a species of concern. That category is defined, in part, as: “A species or subspecies which might become threatened in Ohio under continued or increased stress.”

We’re already there, regarding the threatened status. Removing the fox from hunting pressure is an obvious step in removing an additional and unnecessary source of additive mortality, and the right thing to do.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first and third Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at jimmccormac.blogspot.com.