Spadgers

Spring arrives in Cambridge.

Snow flurries are just fine by me. Meanwhile in the Southwest, a serious heat wave.

Martinez Lake, AZ yesterday recorded a high of 110 F / 43 C.

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In any event, the snow didn’t amount to much and as you can see the enormous pile at the end of our drive is now no more than a small bump, some of which may be gravel that will have to be raked back into place.

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A hint of snow always brings birds to the feeders.

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Master House Sparrow did his best to organise the feast.

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Then he went off to eat peanuts with a Mourning dove.

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When I was a child, I my mother referred to sparrows as spadgers which is a term I have never heard in the States, so I’d decided it was one of those names children sometimes invent.

My forehead for some reason I called my fester.

But when I interrogated the internet, it told me that indeed, spadger is a British colloquial name for a House sparrow.

As well as a slang name for a small, energetic boy.

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Trying to keep straight which sparrow is which is hard because there are so many and the differences between male, female and juvenile complicates things further.

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Mrs House sparrow is quite different to her husband, for example.

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As well as those first four, the above sometimes turn up, but as they constantly flit about, we tend not to notice the details of their appearance.

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And so many other birds look like sparrows, such as the Pine siskin.

Yes, sitting still, you can see the differences, but in motion and in the company of numerous other little brown birds, not so easy.

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There are so many brown and white birds, but at least the female grosbeak is easy to identify because she has a large beak! And she is quite a bit bigger than a sparrow.

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Last year I’m not sure we saw a female grosbeak and the males came only a handful of times.

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In earlier years, grosbeaks came often to our feeders and I quickly became very fond of them, something about those big eyes and they way they tilt their heads, perhaps.

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The only Phoebe we saw last year was when we were out and about elsewhere.

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We have never seen many Towhees here, but last year we caught sight of one only twice:(

Who will turn up this year?

It seems many kinds of juvenile start out a basic brown and white.

Once the colours begin to show, have we a chance of recognising who’s who. Otherwise we can only try to remember whose beak is which.

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For months last year, the Red-bellied woodpecker was nowhere to be seen, so we were thrilled to see it return and the other day I was able to get this photo of one sharing the suet with a Hairy cousin.

It wasn’t my intention to devote another whole post to birds as I had another creature to write about, but it will have to wait till tomorrow.

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