Song Sparrow Singing on a Tall Weed
March arrived with a cold, breezy morning, and a brisk blue sky with lots of white clouds, and by late morning, a strong, gusty wind. In all the beautiful, cloud-clotted, blue March sky, I only saw a few Crows and one Turkey Vulture soaring.
Although the sound of traffic on the highway beyond the old field seemed especially loud this morning, a Song Sparrow perched on top of a tall, ragged stem of a weed among many weeds, on the edge of the old field – out in clear view. It was a particularly pretty Song Sparrow, with a russet and gray-striped head; short, thick, pointed bill; white throat bordered by dark patches, coarse dark-brown streaks on the sides, converging in a rather small dark spot in the middle of its chest; and pinkish legs. It sang several times as I stopped to watch and listen – against the background noise of the traffic and the wind. The song sounded hesitant and broken, not fluent, not confident, but enthusiastic and determined. Its long tail wasn’t twitching around nervously as Song Sparrows so often do. It sat still on the top of the tall weed stem and just sang, again and again, a series of creaky but musical whistles and chirps, ending in a trill.