Closing out April with two of my favs
A sparrow and a wildflower
The white-throated sparrows have arrived on the 29th. They have been feeding under the bird feeder and singing loudly in the yard. I have fond memories of these sparrows starting in my youth attending camp in the Adirondacks where this sparrow was a summer resident. The white-throateds, hermit thrushes and loons were the bird songs I remember from those summer months spent in upstate New York.
The white-throated sparrow has two different color morphs - the distinctive white-striped or a more muted tan form. What is interesting is that an individual of one color morph always mates with the opposite color.
These white-throated sparrows are passing briefly through our yard on their way north. The closest they will breed here in Minnesota is in the northeast corner of the state close to the border of Canada. It is really the summer sparrow of Canada so maybe that is why the folks to the North think its song says Oh-sweet-canada-canada. I tend to prefer the more Yankee translation of its song to Old-Sam-Peabody-Peabody.
Not to be outdone, one of our summer sparrows here in central Minnesota, the Chipping Sparrow also just arrived. The rusty-capped sparrow is very comfortable nesting in spruce trees in our suburban backyards.
And this is the time when one of my favorite backyard wildflower blooms - the cutleaf toothwort. Toothworts are part of the mustard family and the name comes from the tooth-like projections on the underground stems.
Now is the time here in Minnesota to put up the hummingbird feeders and get oranges and grape jelly ready for the orioles. Cornell Lab’s migration forecast is projecting a big northern push of birds tonight. Happy May Day!
