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Monday, May 6, 2019
The astonishment of spring.
Sunday morning walked out at about 8.00am to lift weights.
Walking along the Greenway.
This mile-long broken ribbon of a park, so well planted for humans and birds.
First heard a bird song or two then spotted several white-throated sparrows dashing about, faster and more eye-catching than the more numerous house sparrows.
Then more bird songs.
Then the appearance nearby of a male downy woodpecker, for me, the first on the Greenway.
Downy Woodpecker
Bird-singing continuing all along the park to South Station.
No binoculars so, except for the white-throated and the downy, no visuals of the less commonly seen, more secretive, woodland species, but did note their six, or maybe seven, different songs, all unknown to me, in addition to the half-dozen familiar songs of robins, blue jays, catbirds, song sparrows, and other commonly-seen species.
The Greenway in the morning,
a good place to experience
The astonishment of spring.
White Throated Sparrow
By Cephas - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15086427
The weather in the next few days is decidedly ticking upwards in temperature and in sun.
Let’s exult in this coming glorious weather.
The hours are ticking away and if we don’t make the most of our time another day will soon click past.
Unnoticed.
Unappreciated.
Tick Tock.
In clock language:
Enjoy today.
Enjoy the week.
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Postings Count, Weather Brief, and Dinner
Monday, May 6, 2019
Our 395th consecutive posting, committed to 5,000.
After 395 posts we’re at the 7.90 percentile of our commitment, the commitment a different way of marking the passage of time.
Time is 12.01am.
On Monday, Boston’s temperature will reach a high of 61* with a feels-like of 561* with mainly sunny skies.
Dinner for tonight will be leftover Roast Chicken with Artichokes, Roasted peppers, and Shallots.
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Question of the Day:
What is a White-Throated Sparrow?
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Monday, May 6, 2019
Love your notes.
Contact me at domcapossela@hotmail.com
This from Sally C on a published photo:
Love your hat! To say nothing of its jaunty angle.
Sally
Web Meister Responds:Thank you, Sally.
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Chuckle for Monday, May 6, 2019
If it weren’t for marriage, husbands and wives would have to spend most of their adult lives arguing with complete strangers.
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Answer to the Question of the Day: Monday, May 6, 2019
What is a White-Throated Sparrow?
The white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) is a passerine bird of the American sparrow family Passerellidae.
They are similar in appearance to the white-crowned sparrow, but with white throat markings and yellow lores.
There are two adult plumage variations known as the tan-striped and white-striped forms.
On the white-striped form the crown is black with a white central stripe.
The supercilium is white as well.
The auriculars are gray with the upper edge forming a black eye line.
On the tan form, the crown is dark brown with a tan central stripe.
The supercilium is tan as well.
The auriculars are gray/light brown with the upper edge forming a brown eye line.
Both variations feature dark eyes, a white throat, yellow lores and gray bill.
There is variation and some individuals may show dark lateral stripes of each side of the throat.
They almost always pair with the opposite color morph for breeding.
The two-color morphs occur in approximately equal numbers.
Both male and female white-striped birds are more aggressive than tan-striped birds during the breeding season.
The breast has gray/tan streaks and the streaks continue down the flanks but the belly is generally light gray.
The wings are rufous with two distinct white wing bars.
Sexes are morphologically similar.
White-throated sparrows breed in central Canada and New England.
They nest either on the ground under shrubs or low in trees in deciduous or mixed forest areas and lay three to five brown-marked blue or green-white eggs.
In winter, White-throated sparrows migrates to the southern and eastern United States. It stays year-round in the Atlantic provinces of Canada. This bird is a rare vagrant to western Europe.
Alongside some other species such as the cardinal, dark-eyed junco, song sparrow and chickadees, this species ranks among the most abundant native birds during winter in eastern North America.
Despite a high level of con-specific rivalry within white-throated sparrows, this species is often dominated by other seed-eating winter residents, even those that are no larger than itself like the song sparrow, and thus may endure high levels of predation while foraging since restricted to sub-optimal sites at times by competition.
Not to mention numerous mammalian carnivores, at least ten avian predators often hunt them and they are among the most regular prey species for some smaller raptors, i.e. the sharp-shinned hawk and eastern screech-owl
White-throated sparrows forage on the ground under or near thickets or in low vegetation.
They mainly eat seeds, insects and berries, and are attracted to bird feeders.
There are at least two distinct songs sung by this species.
One consists of an initial note, followed by three or so repeated notes at an interval of about a major third above.
The second song consists of an initial note, a second a whole step lower, and a third note, repeated two or three times, about a minor third below that.
I love bird watching and never walk out without my Peterson’s and a checklist.
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Good Morning on this Monday, the sixth day of May, 2019
Our homily dealt with the experience of a spring day, the astonishment of it.
We posted the weather and date and the number of postings.
A chuckle and a letter from Sally.
The question and answer taught us something about white-throated sparrows.
And now? Gotta go.
Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Your love.