** Reply to note from tweeters at u.washington.edu Sat, 22 Mar 1997 00:08:02 PST


> Of course, their hormones are just not seething quite hot enough yet, and
> these boys aren't yet back on their territories, so the songs are bound to
> be partial and tentative. The Fox Sparrow on territory sings from cover and,
> if you're unfamiliar with connecting the plain bird with the gorgeous song,
> has you looking for some kind of magnificently-hued grosbeak.

Harumph. Altogether too inclusive, Michael. *Some* Fox Sparrows sing from cover
but *most* in my experience do not. They usually go to the top few branches of
the nearest highest shrub, etc. and then deliver that oh-so-sweet song. One on
the Charlottes actually sang from the top of a little snag in the plainest view
possible.


> The Varied
> Thrush will offer the deep forest version of the will-o'-the-wisp, or the
> desert mirage of water: no matter how far you pursue the sound, the bird
> singing it is always still just a little further off. Rather than
> 'ethereal', the pack-mule word for describing thrush song, to me it sounds
> at a distance more industrial, more like someone shaving some soft metal on
> a swiftly-turning lathe. If it were deep in the woods in Ireland, I'd wonder
> if it weren't the Little People milling their gold. ;-)

Now here is one bird that often *does* sing from inside cover, usually covered
by a few cedar or spruce boughs close to the end of a branch near the top of
the tree, but not quite in plain view. And I suggest that you are listening to
way too much Philip Glass in your spare time. To describe a Varied Thrush song
as industrial is to cheapen it beyond repair. But I do like the Miles Davis
comparison!

- Jack




Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jcbowling at mindlink.bc.ca