June 14 2012. This morning I led a small group to see what we could find in an area of bogs, swamps and dry fields. A beautiful June day in every respect with an interesting selection of birds including: Common Yellowthroat, Cedar Waxwings, Eastern Kingbirds, Spotted Sandpipers and Green Herons. All nice to see but not exceptional.
Two sparrow species stood out as special today, even though we couldn’t see them, only hear them: a White-throated Sparrow was singing deep in a tamarack and spruce bog. He was special because we are really quite a long way south of the White-throated Sparrows breeding range, but the particular area we were exploring bears many similarities to more northern landscapes, so the white throats are content to stay. I think he was my Bird of the Day just for being here and entertaining us with his patriotic ‘Oh sweet Canada Canada Canada’ song. At least that’s what Canadians like to make of the song while Americans (I think) prefer: ‘Old Sam Peabody Peabody Peabody’. I started wondering who Sam Peabody is, or was, and found a real live one in New York; and for what it’s worth he’s described as: “.. the scion of an old New England family and husband of the socialite Judy Peabody.”
Several Swamp Sparrows were calling loudly on the edges of small marshes. A decade ago when I was doing survey work for the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas, I became very familiar with the range and variation in the song of Swamp Sparrows. The songs are all basically the same rapid-fire loud chip notes, about a dozen in quick succession fading towards the end, but they vary from a mellow, even discreet trill like an upgraded Chipping Sparrow, to a slower almost shouting, two-note “ Tchinga tchinga tchinga tchinga tchinga tchinga….”.
Probably our best encounter was with a small group of Showy Lady Slippers growing on the opposite side of a small creek. These orchids are very pretty and consequently they’re often the targets of gardeners who figure they can grow them in their back yard; but rarely if ever succeed. As victims of their own success they’ve become quite rare, we were privileged to see them .
