The White Throated Sparrow. To me it is the quintessential BWCA bird song.

Listen here…

White Throated Sparrow

scottiebaldwin: "The White Throated Sparrow. To me it is the quintessential BWCA bird song.

White Throated Sparrow "

Exactly. While common, this is the bird song that I heard first in the BWCA that got me hooked on birds and bird songs!

But if I had to pick a different one, I’m torn. I love hearing both Swainson’s and Hermit Thrushes, but the one I think about most often and look forward to lately is the Red Breasted Nuthatch. I also love the White Breasted, but I haven’t heard it nearly as often.

The one I want to hear remains unknown to me. I have heard it for years but have never seen the bird to identify it. I hope to hear it long enough to deploy my Merlyn app for a long sought identification.

My absolute favorite is still the loon, especially after the sun goes down.

But three others that capture my heart are the white sparrow, swainson's thrush, and the pileated woodpecker.

The pileated woodpecker just moved into my area in the last few years, but for 25 years, I only heard it on my BW trips. I love the echoing rapping across the water.

Swainson's thrush is often the last bird in the evening, and the first at sunrise. It's warbling is very complicated, and I could listen to it for hours.

And the melancholy white sparrow takes all the chaos of the heart and melts it away. It's simple call is audible peace.

For me it the white throated sparrow as well!

The bird song I want to hear most is the next one.

100% agree. White Throated Sparrow and BWCA go hand in hand, for me.

Agree totally on the white throated sparrow. I can't imagine the northwoods without it.

I'll add another one: the black-capped chickadee. The two-note tee-dee (higher note to lower note.)

Mike

Hearing my first loon is a special part of every trip. The calls of the loon as much as anything mean I have returned to the land of "blue lake and rocky shore".

Easy, the loon. It's my favorite bird call and I look forward to hearing it all year before my trips.

#1 Loon
#2 Red Breasted Nuthatch
#3 Grouse

Favorites:
Winter wren
Loon
White throated sparrow

I dislike hearing swans

Top 3 are pretty similar:

#1 Loon
#2 Grouse
#3 White Throated Sparrow - only comes in 3rd because one of my tripping buddies regularly calls back to them (which can be tiring).

Loon

Raven

LindenTree: "The bird song I want to hear most is the next one."

I agree! As an avid birder, many of my friends have asked me what is my favorite bird. My answer is always the same. My favorite bird is the one I'm currently looking at. That being said, I do truly enjoy the sound of the Common Loon.

The White Throated Sparrow.

I like hearing all of them. Except one. This thing was perched in a tree right above our tent one night on pine lake from ep1. ALL NIGHT LONG… We moved sites the the next day, but could still hear it the next night from across the lake Whippoorwill

Loon.

Doesn't appear to be much of a difference between a Swainson's thrush and a hermit thrush. Either works for me.

Oh gosh, Loon is still #1. Love hearing thrushes. Still get a thrill hearing grouse drumming. I think the little winter wren steals the show. Quite a song coming out of that tiny little body. Not a song, but the sound of swan feet as the paddle atop the water is pretty cool. I agree with not being too fond of the whippoorwill when one is nearby at night. Winter Wren Song

chessie: "Oh gosh, Loon is still #1. Love hearing thrushes. Still get a thrill hearing grouse drumming. I think the little winter wren steals the show. Quite a song coming out of that tiny little body. Not a song, but the sound of swan feet as the paddle atop the water is pretty cool. I agree with not being too fond of the whippoorwill when one is nearby at night. Winter Wren Song "

Yes grouse drumming or sand hill cranes calling

If you want to be drove to close to insanity, camp on Ensign lake in June. The Whip o wills are calling mates ALL NIGHT LONG. You can set your watch by them. 9:00 pm until 5am. Note to all who camp there is to bring earplugs.

scottiebaldwin: "The White Throated Sparrow. To me it is the quintessential BWCA bird song.

White Throated Sparrow "

Our kids, when younger, called it the "Come to Canada" bird....because it sounds like "Come...to...Canada, Canada, Canada..."

Loon, easily.

Where I live, there are no loons, so when I’m in the northern backcountry, their call feels almost otherworldly. There’s nothing more haunting or magical than hearing that mournful cry echo from the distance over a quiet lake, layered with the soft crackle of a campfire and a sky full of stars.

Savage Voyageur: "If you want to be drove to close to insanity, camp on Ensign lake in June. The Whip o wills are calling mates ALL NIGHT LONG. You can set your watch by them. 9:00 pm until 5am. Note to all who camp there is to bring earplugs. "

Hard to hear the birds on Ensign with all the summer campers partying there ;)

Definitely #1 - Loon
A solid #2 - Grouse drumming
#3 - Whippoorwill

I know that we are hearing far less of each, especially the loon, since we started tripping in the early '90's.

Pinetree: "

chessie: "Oh gosh, Loon is still #1. Love hearing thrushes. Still get a thrill hearing grouse drumming. I think the little winter wren steals the show. Quite a song coming out of that tiny little body. Not a song, but the sound of swan feet as the paddle atop the water is pretty cool. I agree with not being too fond of the whippoorwill when one is nearby at night. Winter Wren Song "

Yes grouse drumming or sand hill cranes calling"

This is WAY off topic, but spending time in Nebraska when the cranes migrate through is an amazing experience. Seeing tens of thousands of birds, and yes, their sound. It is a beautiful cacophony, ... if you've never gone, and have some spare time mid-March, the Grand Island to Kearny region is a bucket list trip for those amongst us who enjoy the birds.

YardstickAngler: "

scottiebaldwin: "The White Throated Sparrow. To me it is the quintessential BWCA bird song.


White Throated Sparrow "

Exactly. While common, this is the bird song that I heard first in the BWCA that got me hooked on birds and bird songs!


But if I had to pick a different one, I’m torn. I love hearing both Swainson’s and Hermit Thrushes, but the one I think about most often and look forward to lately is the Red Breasted Nuthatch. I also love the White Breasted, but I haven’t heard it nearly as often."

Thrushes for me as well.

Loon, white-throated sparrow, and any owl...in that order.

Speaking of owls, how about the "car alarm bird"? We were on Saganagons Lake and we kept getting woken up by a bird that sounded like a car alarm. We eventually figured out that it was the saw-whet owl.

My fave is the white throated sparrow.

My favorite is also a thrush. Some times I don’t hear them at first, but I see them. Robins.

Agree with the White Throated Sparrow, probably my fave as well, followed by the Winter Wren and Swainson's/Hermit Thrushes.
I also love hearing the ovenbirds in the spring, their "teacher, teacher, teacher" helps lighten the load on portages!

Hands down the White Throated Sparrow

I understand Unas10's search.

Unas10: "The one I want to hear remains unknown to me. I have heard it for years but have never seen the bird to identify it. I hope to hear it long enough to deploy my Merlyn app for a long sought identification."

The winnow of the Wilsons Snipe had us bewildered. (even after pouring through the Merlin app)
The challenge in identifying them was they were flying so high up that the origin of the sound was hard to determine.
Sound origin demonstrated

chessie: "This is WAY off topic, but spending time in Nebraska when the cranes migrate through is an amazing experience. Seeing tens of thousands of birds, and yes, their sound. It is a beautiful cacophony, ... if you've never gone, and have some spare time mid-March, the Grand Island to Kearny region is a bucket list trip for those amongst us who enjoy the birds. "

Yes! I remember seeing the sandhill cranes on the Platte in Kearney when I was a kid. Thirty years later that memory is still crisp. It felt like being in the middle of an exotic national geographic-type place instead of nowhere Nebraska.

Also, count me in as part of the white throated sparrow crowd :)

ForestDuff: "Raven"

Me too. I can tell they have actual vocabulary.

Argo: "Doesn't appear to be much of a difference between a Swainson's thrush and a hermit thrush. Either works for me."

The hermit thrush is softer - a 2 part song. The Swainson's thrush is more ethereal and cascading - a 1 part song.

For my vote:

1. Hermit Thrush
2. Loon
3. White Throated Sparrow

I cant believe so many people don't like whipporwills! That my favorite one. We have one that lands on the barn roof at home in PA, absolutely love it. Something about it says "home" to me when I start feeling a little homesick in the BWs.

I will almost certainly be alone here but for me it's the american bittern. It's a very unique call and for the first couple years I heard it I thought it was actually some kind of frog until I saw one for the first time. Now I know it's really spring in the north when I hear that call in the muskeg.

Close second would probably be the red wing blackbird.

Those are the songs I look forward to most in spring, but my favorite overall bird song is still the loon.

White throated sparrow singing in my backyard in St. Paul.

YardstickAngler: "

scottiebaldwin: "The White Throated Sparrow. To me it is the quintessential BWCA bird song.


White Throated Sparrow "

Exactly. While common, this is the bird song that I heard first in the BWCA that got me hooked on birds and bird songs!


But if I had to pick a different one, I’m torn. I love hearing both Swainson’s and Hermit Thrushes, but the one I think about most often and look forward to lately is the Red Breasted Nuthatch. I also love the White Breasted, but I haven’t heard it nearly as often."

For years and years I did not know what the song was. In my naivete, I assumed it was an amphibian or mammal of some kind. When I finally learned it was the Red Breasted Nuthatch, I was quite surprised. The song sounds rather "unbirdlike" and always sounds like it is coming from a distance.

But I agree. I'm looking forward to the chickadee two-tone, high low song, the White Throated Sparrow, and the Red Breasted Nuthatch. Blue Jays are a close fourth.

Mike

scottiebaldwin: "The White Throated Sparrow. To me it is the quintessential BWCA bird song.

Listen here…

White Throated Sparrow "

White throated sparrow is definitely a favorite (along with the loon). Heard one in our neighborhood here in Mpls this past weekend.

And because I’m a music nerd, here’s one of the white-throated sparrow’s calls from that video musically notated. Not exactly Olivier Messiaen (French composer and ornithologist who famously notated birdsong) but thought it would be fun to share.

Swanson's Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Looks
Warblers

Oops!

Loons