Hi Kelly and Tweets,

I agree that those Prairies are great, with the added excitement that you
never know when you will have an M-16 pointed at you by a 17 year old ROTC
recruit (actually, it kind of makes you homesick for birding in Central
America).

You said (about Vesper Sparrows): "fixing their song into my stubbornly
uncooperative mind"

I think the easiest way to 'fix' a bird song in my mind is to find a 'hook'.
Sometimes its just a quality, like 'liquid' or 'buzzy'...sometimes it's a
short phrase, as in the case of a singing Vesper Sparrow. I think he's
saying:
"Here...Here...Where...Where...All-together-down-the-hill"
or if you prefer, (thanks to Gene Revelas, a child of the 60's?):
"Hey...Hey...You...You...Get-off-of-my-cloud"

I learned this in Bob Sundstrom's excellent 'Birding by ear' class, usually
offered each year through the Seattle Audubon Society. Any Tweeter out there
in the Seattle area who hasn't taken this class is missing out on a great
opportunity to move your appreciation of birds to a new level...and Bob is
getting busier and busier, and is probably going to get tired of teaching
the class at some point...

Cheers,
Rick Romea
Seattle, WA