Rare Sparrows at Grant Park Beach Area 10/6/20

I was at Sheridan Park this afternoon, but not much was going on. There were a ton of butterflies though, so I decided to head over to the Grant Park Beach area. It can be very good for butterflies, along the south side of the parking lot. As soon as I got out of the truck, I hear “hey!” I look over and Lorri is telling me she just had a Harris’s Sparrow. I started walking the area that she saw it, but could not relocate it. After about 30 minutes, I was watching several Yellow-rumped Warblers feeding on the ground, and in flies the Harris’s Sparrow and lands right in front me! It hung out in the grass, near a clump of trees, on the west side of the parking lot. I continued walking around and in the flowering area on the south side of the parking lot, I scared up a Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow! Wow, two rare sparrows within 100′ of each other! I started off looking for butterflies and ended up watching rare birds, funny how that works sometimes. There were a bunch of Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers, mostly feeding on the ground. I also had approximately 35 Pine Siskins, one flock of about 20 flew south and 15 or so remained in the tree tops to the northwest. All images below are from this afternoon. Enjoy!