BWCA The song of the White-throated sparrow... Boundary Waters Quetico Forum
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Jackfish
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06/13/2013 02:09PM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
I'll be hearing it in Q in less than 48 hours.

White-throated sparrow
 
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06/13/2013 02:31PM  
my favorite birdy song. thanks for posting.
06/13/2013 11:41PM  
have a great trip pete.
Jackfish
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06/14/2013 02:20AM  
Thanks Sheryl and Jan... "see" you in a week. :)
bojibob
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06/14/2013 11:30AM  
CYA Pedro of the Tundra. Have an excellent Journey!
h20
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06/14/2013 11:52AM  
The sound of up north. Thanks.
Longpaddler
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07/05/2014 10:21AM  
Love this song...have a great trip
Eyedocron
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07/05/2014 10:27PM  
Looking forward to this call in 3 weeks.
Jackfish
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04/07/2015 03:02PM  
I'm so anxious to get out canoeing, I just had to bump this thread to the top.
Eyedocron
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04/08/2015 02:17PM  
Thanks for bumping this up. 3 months and a week for my 2015 crew.
Laketrout58
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04/21/2015 01:52PM  
That song always makes me happy!
04/22/2015 01:04AM  
Some of those sparrows overwinter here in Northern Arkansas. I usually hear them start singing in January. It immediately causes me to think of all my trips into Quetico just like a song will slam you back into high school.

Terry
QueticoMike
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04/22/2015 08:37AM  
I've been hearing them for a couple of months now here in Ohio. For some reason they don't sing the whole song down here. They start it, but it dies early. Maybe it needs to be later in Spring before they continue through with the song. Does anyone know why this is?
thebotanyguy
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04/22/2015 10:54AM  
quote QueticoMike: "I've been hearing them for a couple of months now here in Ohio. For some reason they don't sing the whole song down here. They start it, but it dies early. Maybe it needs to be later in Spring before they continue through with the song. Does anyone know why this is?"


Might you be hearing the black-capped chickadee? The song is similar to the first notes of the white-throated sparrow song.

Black-capped chickadee song
QueticoMike
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04/22/2015 03:36PM  
No, I have never seen one of those birds in Ohio. Are they known to be in Ohio? I am pretty sure it is white-throated sparrow, it does about half of the song most of the time. It just doesn't have the full length, it is like they just peter out towards the end for some reason. I have heard some close to doing the full song before. But it seems like at times they can only get out 50 to 75 percent of the song. Maybe further into mating season or later in Spring the song increases. Or maybe they are just happier up in the northwoods???
Eyedocron
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04/22/2015 06:10PM  
I agree with QueticoMike. We have this sparrow here in SE Illinois in the spring. Does its full song here most of the time, sometimes chops off the last couple of notes.
04/22/2015 06:57PM  
quote Eyedocron: "I agree with QueticoMike. We have this sparrow here in SE Illinois in the spring. Does its full song here most of the time, sometimes chops off the last couple of notes."


They are also in northern New Hampshire (although I'm not there right now!)...very pretty, melodic song to accompany your ascents to higher elevations....paddling will not come soon enough this year!
04/22/2015 09:25PM  
When they are on their wintering grounds and in migration (like in Ohio, Illinois, or the D.C. area where I used to live), white-throated sparrows do sing, but they tend to only sing part of their song, and also often sing it quietly or "off-key." The part of the song they sing can be the beginning or the end or just one note, but you can almost always tell it is a white-throat if you are used to hearing the full song, it's a very distinctive bird voice-wise. Even up here in the northwoods, they often sing only part of their song later in the season. A lot of birds don't sing at all in winter or migration, so it's not that surprising that although the white-throat does sing then, it's not the full song. Just speculating, it might be males born the previous spring who are practicing their songs . . . it usually takes a year until they are good at it.

PS - There are definitely black-capped chickadees in Ohio and everywhere else in the northeast (and their near-identical twins Carolina chickadees in the southeast) . . . you've seen them and you've heard them, even if you never noticed it.
Canoodler
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04/23/2015 03:43PM  
Fourty eight hours??? Are you sure the ice is out, Jackfish? I wish you the best on the muddy parts!!!
04/23/2015 10:19PM  
Interesting stuff. Has anyone else noticed that after a rain event or even a break in the rain -- that they hear the white-throated sparrow?? Camping out in my b-yard last wk-end during breaks in the rain and when it finally ended-- chickadees and other birds started chirping so maybe it's not just the white-throated sparrow.>?
04/28/2015 06:14PM  


WhiteWolf, I do think a lot of the songbirds do that. A White-throat song during a break in the rain is memorable.

I was in New York City this weekend and heard several White-throats sing when I was on a run in Central Park. The first couple sang partial songs, but then in one area I heard several sing their full song. It's that time of year. I'm guessing some might breed as far south as NYC, but they might have been migrants, too.

I have yet to hear one around our place north of Ely. But someone in our local naturalist group said they heard one singing last week. Lots of the summer birds are showing up now . . .

Canoodler
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04/30/2015 08:23AM  
Oh, I just saw a posting by you, Jackfish, and thought: he didn't go on a canoe trip to the Q as early as I thought. The 2013 original posting date, which I missed, confirmed that!!! You bugger, you!
Canoodler
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04/30/2015 08:23AM  
 
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