A Song Sparrow in the late afternoon light...

Sunday I finally started to feel better after recovering from a cold that had kept me indoors for far too long, so I bundled up and headed over to Voice of American (VOA) Park. It was very cold, but it was also blue-sky sunny, and I wanted to see if the American Kestrel that's usually there was hanging around (he wasn't). After checking the frozen lake for winter visitors (there were none save a lone Canada Goose slipping and sliding on the ice), I went off-trail and climbed over the brushy hills that lead to the meadow. It was nearly 5:00 p.m., and the late afternoon sun was doing its winter magic by coloring the dead and bleached brush with warm tones of gold and rust. Suddenly, what seemed like a deserted patch of earth came to life as five small brown birds skittered around, weaving here and there through leaves and bent grass until eventually bursting up in a panic to the safety of stubby snags and the remains of giant pokeweed bushes where they paused to keep a wary eye on me...

A beautiful little Song Sparrow peeked at me from behind a branch, watching warily with just just one eye. If you think he looks cute here, you should have seen him through the camera lens. It would have melted your heart.

...he then moved behind a branch, peeking out with the other eye, obscured from view in shadow...

I'm surprised he didn't lift his little foot and point two little toes at his eyes and then one back at me in that "I'm watching you..." gesture.

The warm browns of a Song Sparrow in late afternoon sunshine...

Eventually the Song Sparrow decided I was no threat...

...turned his back on me, and rejoined his little winter foraging flock on the ground.

When I read this journal entry from Thoreau (April 2, 1853), I had to smile...sounds just like our little sparrows:

"The song-sparrows, the three-spotted, away by the meadow-sides, are very shy and cunning: instead of flying, will frequently trot along the ground under the bushes, or dodge through a wall like a swallow; and I have observed that they generally bring some object, as a rail or branch, between themselves and the face of the walker,—often with outstretched necks will peep at him for five or ten minutes." (Source: page 302, "Early Spring in Massachusetts: from the journals of Henry David Thoreau," edited by Blake, 1881/1893. Click here for the online version of this book.)

Song Sparrow under the pines...

Painting 203. Song Sparrow Under the Pines

(watercolor)

I painted this Song Sparrow from a photo I took last January after a snow storm. The little guy was under a pine tree rooting through the dropped pine needles. He was looking for left-over bread crumbs. Birds had been scraping through the snow and pine needles all day, and dirt had been kicked up too. Eventually he found a bread crumb, ate it, and starting looking for more!

Remember the Breadcrumb Fairy?

...she still seems to be visiting Pine Hill Lakes!

A little Carolina Chickadee alighted in the pine tree that the good-hearted Breadcrumb Fairy always seems to toss buns under. Click here to see what the Breadcrumb Fairy brought last year (I still haven't seen who the fairy is...).

Chiggy is studying the ground beneath the huge pine looking for breadcrumbs.

He looks a little harder..."they have to be down there somewhere, they always are..."

It was late in the day, and the birds must have been busy all day eating what was there because the snow and pine needles had been well "bird-foot-raked," and nothing much was left to be seen--but after a little hopping around and kicking up snow, the birds always came up with something to eat.

Looking...looking...

Our little tan-striped morph White-throated Sparrow was thorough in his recon...

...looking some more...a snowbird's work is never finished...

It all pays off. He's just about to rake up a bite to eat.

A sweet Song Sparrow gets in on the action and is rewarded for his efforts too.

A Song Sparrow shows off...

Yesterday, at Pine Hill Lakes, while I was in the middle of the meadow weaving in and out of the grasses and thorns, I heard a little “jimp” call and slowed down to listen, finally seeing movement in an island of brush. Little by little, this sweet Song Sparrow hopped up to the top of a small tree for good viewing and didn't seem to mind me at all!

A Song Sparrow at Pine Hill Lakes Park. 

This fellow was so sweet, I ended up calling him Old SweetSong.

"I hear you, and I see you! Yes, you with the clicky thing."

Eventually, SweetSong got tired of me and blew on out 

of there. I like the blurry softness of this "poor" photo.

P.S.
Today at lunch, I took my mom to the Voice of American (VOA) Park and we saw our first Tree Swallows of the year! They were swooping and diving and looked fabulous. She also saw her first-ever Wilson's Snipe, and we were serenaded by numerous Eastern Meadowlarks, Kildeer, Red-winged Blackbirds, American Robins, Song Sparrows and a yet-to-be-identified sparrow that resembled a Song Sparrow but clearly wasn't. I have to go back and get a better view. We also saw the American Kestrel sitting in his usual tree...such a beautiful bird. The only water fowl there were a few Canada Geese and a pair or two of Mallards.

Photo of an American Kestrel from a week or so ago. 

Today, he was sitting in the exact tree as last wee. Not the

best photo, but you can make out his features...sort of!!

Business as usual at the heronry...and our Chipping Sparrows are back!!

Just about all the couples at the Great Blue Heron rookery are sitting on nests, and the activity seems to be increasing during the day. Some of the nests have been occupied for almost a month. The first day I saw any of the couples sitting on a nest was March 6, and it takes about a month for the eggs to hatch, so any day now…

Three of the six sycamore trees that support the colony 

of herons nesting in the rookery. The heronry looks 

almost empty here, but it's completely full. Little 

heads can be seen just above the rim of the nests.

Last week on the 26th they were sitting on nests…

Today on the 31st, again they are sitting on nests... But today there was a whole lotta shakin’ going on! The mama or the papa would get up, move around a little, play with the nest a little, or turn the eggs a little…then settle back in, which was neat to watch…sort of like “whack a mole” at the amusement park only    i  n     s  l  o  w     m  o  t  i  o  n     !

She or he's up, adjusting the nest or rotating the eggs...

...and down, keeping the eggs warm.

...and his or her neighbor is up, adjusting the nest or rotating the eggs...

...and down, keeping the eggs warm.

Beak Bit
Male and female herons take turns sitting on the eggs, but the Birds of North America Online site indicates that the males sit on the nests for about 10.4 hours each day and females only 3.5 hour each day. The female does most of the incubating at night. Adults usually spend about 54 minutes of each hour sitting on eggs, and they rotate the eggs about once every 2 hours. The females do most of the nest constructing, but the males bring in sticks for the nests.

Even though most of the birds have been sitting on eggs, males still continue to bring in sticks for the nests. It's almost a continuous stream of herons flying in with sticks.

Papa bringing another stick in for the nest...

While I was watching all the popping up and down of the herons, I suddenly heard the familiar buzzy trill of a small flock of Chipping Sparrows! Yeah! They are back. I watched and listened to them trill down the tree line. There were five of them, and they were, needless to say, exceptionally cute. I spent too much time watching them and not enough time trying to photograph them, but I did catch a Song Sparrow that was about 20 feet away.

...the Song Sparrow looking slightly ruffled...

No bluebird sightings today, however...

Note   If you're just tuning in to this blog, you might want to go to the first entry in this series to find out more about these herons.

Song Sparrows Caught on Camera Being Cheerful and Sweet

Larry must have spent a good portion of his weekend tramping through the snow spying on birds, because he has captured another fantastic series of bird portraits. These are all Song Sparrows. The Song Sparrow is a common, year-round resident in most of North America and can usually be found in all our backyards. It is a happy, cheerful little bird with a beautiful song. When I played a clip of his call for Matty, he responded with, “Wow! That’s a cool call,” so it must be true. In the book Music of the Birds, A Celebration of Bird Song, by Lang Elliott (great book), he writes,

The Song Sparrow enlivens each spring with its energetic outbursts. Songs are a variable sequence of notes, including clear whistles and buzzy sounds. Each male has about ten songs in its repertoire and tends to repeat one pattern for several minutes before changing to another.

Ralph Waldo Emerson also was intrigued with the Song Sparrow and in the poem “Each and All” (1867), he wrote,

I thought the Sparrow’s note from heaven, singing at dawn on the alder bough.

We have a several song sparrows in our neighborhood and one in particular nests in my backyard in the huge golden mop cypress bushes. The mama is so sweet and greets me every day. In the spring you can see both the papa and mamma hopping in and out of the massive bushes to feed the nestlings. The papa also has his favorite perches and sings a lot in the wild cherry tree just above the mop and in the hornbeams, just to the left of them.



Male Song Sparrows will sing back and forth to each other if they are near territory boundaries. This is called “countersinging.” In addition, because male Song Sparrows have very large song repertoires, they do “matched countersinging” where the males exchange the same or very similar songs for several minutes before one switches to another song. Lang Elliott reports,

Scientists surmise that such behavior is equivalent to flinging an insult at one’s rival by throwing back its exact same song. In any event, it is a sign of intense interaction.

...hmmm, sounds like a dance off to me!