One of my fall pleasures is to go outdoors on a clear, still, sunny morning and hear the call of the white-throated sparrow.
It's a sweet, clear, somewhat sad whistle. You hear it first in October, or maybe November. Its maker is a somber-colored bird with a back patterned like dead leaves and grasses.
When you hear the whitethroat call, you will know that harsh winter weather is closing in on the northern nesting grounds. The white-throated sparrow is one of our winter residents -- a short-distance migrant.
While some of our summer resident birds, like the buntings and tanagers, are heading for the tropics, the short-distance migrants are arriving. Here they will stay until spring when they return to their summer homes.
Almost every thicket in the Southeast has its winter quota of white-throated sparrows. The same little groups return to the same thickets winter after winter.
Most appear in October. More arrive in November. The last stragglers come in December.
If you don't hear the whitethroats' winter call, maybe you're not doing the right things in your garden.
Is your garden beautifully tended with large areas of smoothly-mowed lawn? Did you rake your leaves? Is your mulch evenly spread under well-pruned trees and shrubs? Are you a well-ordered neatnik with your dead zinnias already pulled and discarded to make way for winter pansies?
If so, you will have few resident whitethroats. Whitethroats don't like civilized landscapes. If you want to make a wintering ground for whitethroats, you need to do less work.
Pick an out-of-the-way place where you do nothing. If weeds don't make you feel guilty, select a place just outside a window with a view from your favorite chair.
Let wild weeds grow. If you don't have any wild weeds, you can import some goldenrods, wild blackberries, and wild vines and grasses. A hawthorn would be nice.
Let your thicket grow. Careful, though -- don't prune anything--let the plants blend together and interlace and interlock. This way the sparrows will feel secure from attack from above.
A little-known fact is that whitethroats like to bathe and flutter their wings in dewy grass. If you want to see the early morning sun catch a shower of sparkling dewdrops, leave a border of unmowed grass at the edge of your thicket.
If you want to feed your whitethroats, scatter a handful of proso millet or small sunflower seeds in the weeds.
Whitethroats don't need a feeder. They prefer to feed on the ground in the security of their thicket home. The boldest ones will come to a feeder near your window.
As spring spreads northward, whitethroats will move north with it. Most will move out in March or April. The very last ones may linger into May.
