poor Sam?

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The temperatures have chilled.

An early harbinger of winter is the arrival of white-throated sparrows in late October. They spend the cold weather months here in the Tennessee Valley but nest to our north. (Great Lakes and New England into southern Canada.)

Likewise, as spring nears, I begin to hear their plaintive song more often as the birds tune up, practicing the proclamations they'll need to claim territories on their breeding grounds. Longing for home, they supposedly sing "pure-sweet-Canada, Canada, Canada." In the fall, they seem to be looking for a "poor, Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody."

But who is poor Sam?

- Photo taken at Ijams Nature Center


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winter birds

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Pied-billed grebe

Cabin fever?

SPECIAL NOTE: Saturday, January 22, at 9 a.m.

I'll be teaching a class on the Winter Birds of Ijams—all the species that can only be found at the nature center at this time of the year.

The list includes such species as the hermit thrush, winter wren, pied-billed grebe, American coot, yellow-bellied sapsucker, white-throated sparrow, pine siskin, purple finch and those hyper, hard to ID, kinglets.

After our indoor review, we'll go outside for a walk to see what we can find. Bring binoculars if you have them, or if not, we have loaner pairs. FEE: Free for Ijams members, $10 for non-members. To sign up call Sheila at (865) 577-4717, ext. 10.

White-throated sparrow

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in motion

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Perhaps the reason we love birds so much is because they're not tethered to terra firma the way we poor Homo sapiens are. We came down from the trees, put on pants and never went back. (OK, part of us put on hoop skirts, but you get my drift.) If we had remained arboreal, maybe we would have grown wings out of sheer mad longing to remain free.

Even on a cold day, birds are active in three dimensions. In the beat of a heart, they're off in any direction.

Such freedom!

But this makes photographing them most difficult. A split instant after I snapped the photo of the white-throated sparrow, it bolted, making the second exposure a pleasing blur. A portrait of motion itself.

Now, that's vitality.

- Photo taken at Ijams Nature Center

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