A Bird in the Hand....

….is easier to identify than a bird in the bush!  A few weeks ago, I mentioned how difficult it was to correctly ID the flocks of sparrows that would fly up, unnoticed from the ground, as soon as I approached the bird feeder.  Even with 20 or so flying up in my face, I couldn’t get a single good look before they melted into the Ashe Junipers.  Chock them up as sparrows and leave it at that but then, I had an opportunity to go to a demonstration of bird banding at the local state park.   Now, with the bird literally in my hand, I could actually see all those field marks that before I had just read about.

First, a word in defense of sparrows, “Oh, its just a sparrow, don’t bother trying to ID it, just call it a LBB (little brown bird) and move on.” Or, many of us equate “sparrows” with the noisy House Sparrow that was introduced from Europe and has taken over every tree in every Wal-Mart parking lot and perhaps your hedgerow too.   I wrote a blog about resorting to withholding food from the other birds to get rid of the House Sparrow population I had acquired, which by the way, in time, did finally work.

Our native sparrows are in a different family altogether and are really lovely little songbirds.  I loved hearing the “Old Sam, Peabody, Peabody” of the White Throated Sparrow on the Cape, and the series of dry chips that the Chipping Sparrow repeated again and again in the spring and the interesting fact that my Song Sparrow had a different dialect than perhaps your Song Sparrow.  Ah, but now I am in Texas and singing sparrows will be but a memory for I am in their wintering grounds here and they save their best melodies for the dating games to come up North in the spring.  

However, this bird banding experience was perfect for showing me up close what I should look for.  I had seen flocks of sparrows explode out of the fields of the Wildlife Rehab place I volunteer at, large grassy fields perfect for this grass loving Vesper Sparrow.  For that matter its scientific name is pretty redundant, Pooecetes gramineus  which means “grass dwelling, grass loving birds” and that’s where I was seeing them.  They have white feathers on the outer side of the tail that you really only see in flight but that makes them a fairly easy ID.  “Vesper”, as in singing beautifully at dusk, but again something I will have to listen to on line for they won’t be doing it here. 

Another new sparrow for me was a Lincoln Sparrow, which I assumed had something to do with Abe. Maybe they found it in IL or perhaps it was an extremely honest bird.  But no, it was named after Tom Lincoln, a 21 yr old from Maine who had gone on a birding expedition with Audubon himself in 1833 and had succeeded in collecting it, so, it was named after him.  Who knew?  This is a really shy sparrow, said to be afraid of it’s own shadow, that stays really close to the brush.  The only reason we got to catch it was there were about 20 of us walking and clapping our way through the brush herding whatever was there toward the fine mesh nets that stretched across the field. 

Speak about a need to be dexterous; I could never make bird-banding my avocation. I am way too clumsy with my hands. But Craig Hensley, our leader, the head Naturalist at Guadalupe River State Park, was so skilled at it. He handled not only extricating them from nets, but then holding them gently and showing us the primary feathers, the secondaries, feet, beaks etc,. Then, with tiny tools, he measured different parts to the bird’s wings and finally attached the small coded ring that would help them identify it later if it was caught again.  He even held the bird up to our ear so we could hear the drum roll of a heartbeat it had.  In the end he placed it gently in a child’s hand and let them have the treat of releasing the bird.  Wonderful!

So just a LBB?  I think not; a bird, just as worthy as any other of our attention and admiration.  And to all my Cape Cod friends, think of me next time you hear “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody”, especially the treat of hearing a young one who is just learning and can only get out the “Old Sam, Old Sam” what was that next line?” I loved that!  But you have to wait, spring isn’t quite at your door yet!  But it will be, the snow will melt, the birds will head north and then you will have my envy. Till then, think of me out in this now, lovely weather, getting the hang of who is whom in the LBB world.