Friday, March 25, 2011

Spring Sparrows Are Arriving

Vesper Sparrow in the Snow
Vesper Sparrow


I don't know who was more surprised by my encounter with this little brown bird on side of the road to Meridean today - the Vesper Sparrow or me.  I did a double-take, then played my birdJam audio - just one stanza.  The bird looked at me - looking at him.  Then he flew to the barbed wire fence and posed long enough for me to be sure of his identity.

Vesper Sparrow

The discoloration near the tip of the bill is from the dirt in which he was poking around for something to eat.   Vesper Sparrows usually arrive in April and scrape for seeds along roadsides and dry prairies and fields.  These ground-nesters are a Wisconsin species of special concern.

Vesper Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow

Last spring, I spotted my first Vesper Sparrow on April 7. 

More new arrivals in my yard this week:  

Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Brown-headed Cowbird

But I wasn't fast enough to get a photo of a Rusty Blackbird trio. 








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