Early Spring Songs (Bay-area, California version)

BirdNote^®

Early Spring Songs
for California (as heard on KWMR, Pt Reyes)

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote! 
 [Wrentit song, repeated]
 In March, we welcome the lengthening days. As storms and gray of winter give way to spring, nothing freshens the new season like the renewal of bird song. [Wrentit song, repeated]
 This month, three groups of birds tune up their musical voices.
 First, and among the earliest spring singers, are birds that reside in our area year round. One such bird is the Wrentit, whose bouncing, whistled song echoes from nearly every brushy hillside along the California coast. [Wrentit song, repeated]
 Second, we hear the early spring voices of birds that stopped over here for the winter, like the lilting, whistled notes of this Fox Sparrow [Sooty Fox Sparrow song]. The Fox Sparrow will fly north for the summer to sing and nest in the thickets of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. [Sooty Fox Sparrow song]
 And the third chorus of voices belongs to birds now migrating from farther south, like many of our early spring American Robins. Some robins will stay to nest in California, and others will continue on. [American Robin song] Some will migrate far enough north to catch up with those Fox Sparrows departed to Alaska, making for a lovely duet. [American Robin song and Sooty Fox Sparrow song]
 Tune up your ears anytime, when you come to our website, birdnote.org. I’m Frank Corrado.
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Call of the provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Wrentit song recorded by G.A. Keller.  Sooty Fox Sparrow song recorded by L.F. Peyton.  American Robin song recorded by W.L. Hershberger. 
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2008 Tune In to Nature.org

ID# 2008-03-03-spring-04-KWMR