Day 126: May 5th – “A Chippy in the Woods”

Hi 50s, drizzle, calm

       “A Chippy in the woods is a Worm-eater”.  This is one of the helpful hints regarding distinguishing the calls of the Chipping sparrow and the Worm-eating warbler.  While very different in appearance, the two species can easily be confused when trying to identify this bird by song alone.  The hint given above is therefore quite useful.

       But my wife always tells me, “Never say ‘never’ and never say ‘always’”.  When we arrived at my son Brian’s home in Woodbury, Connecticut yesterday afternoon, I heard the dry rattle of what sounded like either a chippy or a worm-eater.  Since Brian lives deep in the woods and is surrounded by hardwood forest, I figured,”Great, another warbler for the year list”.  And so this morning, I went out on the property with great expectations.

       Well, guess what.  The adage about chippies in the woods turns out not to always be true.  Searching the trees for what I hoped to be a worm-eating warbler turned out to be many Chipping sparrows.  This “chippy in the woods” was in reality a “chippy in the woods”. 

     And so, helpful hints are generally helpful but can’t always be taken as gospel.  Next time I’ll be a little more careful about jumping to conclusions!