Sit yourself down and stare a while...The temperature was a warm and comfy 78 degrees with bright sunshine as I drove into the Havenwoods (Wisconsin State Forest) in the northern 1/4 of the bustling city of Milwaukee, WI. I had not been to visit in a few months and felt that since it was summer once again, that it was time to look for a few sparrows. Now sparrows mind you, are most everyone's amorphously colored and undefinable "LBBs" (Little Brown Birds), but I still enjoy the challenge each time I 
swing the Bushnells around to bring one into view. As a matter of fact, summertime is the one of the best times to find many of these elusive species-defying birds. American sparrows are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns. There are over 64 different sparrow species types (With the word "sparrow" in their names) and 13 species specifically in North America. Originally, the word "sparrow" meant any small bird. However sparrows can even be quite fetching in their mostly muted browns, tans, and whites. (Just ask artist Ellen Granter if she thinks so...) HERE photographer, Greg Lasley has included many images that he has taken with his camera. Sparrows have worked their way into many aspects of human life; poems, songs, plays, and even sparrow-parable-istic humor!
Ahhh, but I digress...the ol' Internet is FULL of "sparrow-stuff" if you want to find it... The purpose of this here blog entry is to share with you-all what I (Professor Bird Stud) saw while in Havenwoods. Of the 37 species I counted in about 2-hours, 7 of them were sparrows; House, Tree, Field, House, Song, Chipping, and Savannah. I walked predominantly along and above the drainage stream, near the open fields filled with native Wisconsin plants and wildflowers. Someone had thoughtfully placed plywood sections on the grass at 100-yard intervals, so I sat down on one to take a load off, and to sit quietly among the taller grasses...watching. I did however notice that I was sharing my perch with a colony of ants, 
so I was careful to keep them at bay while I waited. I was rewarded with long views of several sparrows doing their sparrowly things. One bird in particular confounded me for many minutes as I watched it clinging to a sturdy stalk of grass. It's long legs didn't seem to fit any profile of any sparrow I had seen before. I kept thinking "Lark," but it just didn't have the markings. I finally went to the sparrow guide I keep with
me and discovered that there was and impostor in the mix...a female Bobolink was what I was looking at as it "pretended" to be a sparrow there on that stalk. I took photos and a video for you to see below.
Havenwoods State Forest is chock-full of varying habitat. There are marshes, prairies, ponds, deciduous trees, pine groves, high ground and low ground areas. As such, the bird species are many and mostly segregated to their favorite habitat. I even heard a red-eyed vireo calling it's "look at me, way up high, in the tree, here I am..." song and just HAD to enter the darkened forest area just to get a better listen. (Heck, you can never SEE the darn things at this time of year with all the leaves, but just to hear one in the "big city" was to cool to pass up
I headed back to the white pickup truck after about 2-hours of sun and fun, filled out a species checklist for the Havenwoods staff, bought the patch for my vest...(yep, ever since my Sugar Camp Lions Club days, I have this "thing" for collecting patches and pins...what can I say?)...and drove back home...dreaming of Usinger's Liverwurst on an onion bun, covered in Silver Spring Beer and Brat mustard. Yum!
swing the Bushnells around to bring one into view. As a matter of fact, summertime is the one of the best times to find many of these elusive species-defying birds. American sparrows are seed-eating birds with conical bills, brown or gray in color, and many species have distinctive head patterns. There are over 64 different sparrow species types (With the word "sparrow" in their names) and 13 species specifically in North America. Originally, the word "sparrow" meant any small bird. However sparrows can even be quite fetching in their mostly muted browns, tans, and whites. (Just ask artist Ellen Granter if she thinks so...) HERE photographer, Greg Lasley has included many images that he has taken with his camera. Sparrows have worked their way into many aspects of human life; poems, songs, plays, and even sparrow-parable-istic humor!
Ahhh, but I digress...the ol' Internet is FULL of "sparrow-stuff" if you want to find it...
so I was careful to keep them at bay while I waited. I was rewarded with long views of several sparrows doing their sparrowly things. One bird in particular confounded me for many minutes as I watched it clinging to a sturdy stalk of grass. It's long legs didn't seem to fit any profile of any sparrow I had seen before. I kept thinking "Lark," but it just didn't have the markings. I finally went to the sparrow guide I keep with
me and discovered that there was and impostor in the mix...a female Bobolink was what I was looking at as it "pretended" to be a sparrow there on that stalk. I took photos and a video for you to see below.Havenwoods State Forest is chock-full of varying habitat. There are marshes, prairies, ponds, deciduous trees, pine groves, high ground and low ground areas. As such, the bird species are many and mostly segregated to their favorite habitat. I even heard a red-eyed vireo calling it's "look at me, way up high, in the tree, here I am..." song and just HAD to enter the darkened forest area just to get a better listen. (Heck, you can never SEE the darn things at this time of year with all the leaves, but just to hear one in the "big city" was to cool to pass up
I headed back to the white pickup truck after about 2-hours of sun and fun, filled out a species checklist for the Havenwoods staff, bought the patch for my vest...(yep, ever since my Sugar Camp Lions Club days, I have this "thing" for collecting patches and pins...what can I say?)...and drove back home...dreaming of Usinger's Liverwurst on an onion bun, covered in Silver Spring Beer and Brat mustard. Yum!
1910 (hidden) Train Bridge on Havenwoods north edge
PS: The Endangered Sparrow
One sparrow in particular seems to have gone missing completely; the "Dusky" Seaside Sparrow disappeared from earth as the last one in captivity died in Lake Buena Vista, FL. in 1987. The "Cape Sable" Seaside Sparrow is now highly endangered as well.
The "Imposter"
Video of Female Bobolink "sparrow imposter" (LEFT) and Savannah Sparrow (RIGHT)
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