In like a lion?

I think there is an old saying for the month of March that say’s something like ‘in like a lion, out like a lamb’…it isn’t the 1st day of the month, but being the 2nd, maybe it is close enough to qualify…today’s strong winds are certainly ‘lion-like’..

the wind has brought warmer temperatures with the thermometer jumping from 2 degrees to 8 in a matter of minutes….so it isn’t surprising that the snow is disappearing at a rapid rate.  The weather today has also run the full gamete from brilliant sunshine to pouring rain!

It was with some trepidation that we walked through the trail, sort of timing our walk to avoid the strongest gusts when we were near any of the stands of trees.  With the winds there was very little in the way of birds to be seen, so thought it was a good time to do another bird ID…this time between Fox Sparrows and Song Sparrows as I’ve mentioned both several times recently.  Identifying Sparrows can be a lot of fun…some people give up and classify them all as LBJ’s short for ‘Little Brown Jobs’!

I took this picture of a Fox Sparrow this morning through my kitchen window… Fox Sparrows are a large, chunky sparrow, we are at the northern edge of their wintering ground, in summer they are found right across the country and up into the high Arctic.  The Fox Sparrows we see here are classified as the Sooty or Pacific race and are the darkest in coloration.  Fox Sparrows are quite secretive, usually seen not far from the shelter of dense underbrush.  Identification factors, besides their size are:  dark brown back with no markings, bi-colored bill (dark on top, light on bottom), light eye ring, and dark inverted ‘check marks’ on the breast…they also scratch in the leaf mold by moving both feet forward and then back at the same time…

This picture of a Song Sparrow was taken on March 2nd in 2009…Song Sparrows are found right across the country and are with us year round.  They are best described as ‘streaky’…their coloration can vary dramatically in different areas of the country, but they are always ‘streaky’ and they always have a darker streak in the middle of the breast…they are smaller than a Fox Sparrow, their bill is the same color top and bottom and they always have varying amounts of gray streaks on their heads.  They too will be found scratching in the undergrowth but also spend a lot of time higher up in the underbrush – singing…hence the name.  Song Sparrows are one of the commonest birds in our area.

So to finish up a quick quiz…..which one is which…

Answer tomorrow!