Spring Song

Do you have a special thing that tells you spring is really here? I do, and the pretty white-throated sparrow above is it. It's not so much seeing one, because they are around my region in winter, it's the song they sing in spring.  Click to enlarge.

Birdwatchers remember the song with a phrase that mimics its cadence and syllable count: Po-or Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody...   Po-or Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody...

The song is a loud, clear, attention-getting whistle that stands out among the other sounds of spring. I listen for it every year. One night this week I slept with a bedroom window open for the first time in a long while. I woke up to a sunny day and a white-throated sparrow singing nearby. Click on this sentence to hear the sparrow sing.  Yay, it's spring!

The First Real Day of Spring

One of Brooklyn's white-throated sparrows, Zonotrichia albicollis.  Click to enlarge. 

One thing signals the start of spring to me -- when the white-throated sparrows start to sing. So, according to me, spring started this past Wednesday when I heard the first one right outside my window. Today they were singing all over Brooklyn.

The song is distinctive and once you know what it is you will easily pick it out above the city noise. Click here to see and listen to some white-throats singing. 

Spring at last...

Great egrets are here. Let the spring begin! 

I wrote a guest blog about northern cardinals for a blog called Tweets and Treefrogs; click here to see it.