We still have some yellow-rumped warblers hanging around, but the feeding frenzy has died down. Fox sparrows are long gone, while other migrating native sparrows have arrived, including white-throated, white-crowned, Harris’s and Lincoln’s.

Harris’s sparrows have a cool song that can easily be reproduced by whistling, so it was fun singing back and forth with this one. There might have been two of them, because I thought I heard the reply coming from different directions. It’s a little like a white-throated song, but clearer and with more notes.

These sparrows are just passing through, probably only here for a few days, and I’ve been scattering seed on the ground for them. The Harris’s sparrow breeds in the Canadian arctic and winters in the south central U.S, while Lincoln’s sparrow is more widespread, breeding in Canada and Alaska. White-throated sparrows nest in Minnesota but we are just south of that range. Their song reminds of me of camping in the Boundary Waters, where they are quite numerous and talkative.

Besides sparrows, there have been at least four Baltimore orioles enjoying the oranges I’ve been putting out for them, and a couple of rose-breasted grosbeaks visiting the feeders. I’ve got the hummingbird feeder up too. It seems that spring has finally arrived!