Listening to a Continent Sing

the companion website to the book by Donald Kroodsma

SAVANNAH SPARROW WY-266

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

June 4, 5:43 a.m.

Sunrise at 5:40 a.m.

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Six minutes of this? You have to be kidding, I can almost hear the complaint. Yes, six minutes (reduced from the nine I had available). This savannah sparrow takes me there, beside the Firehole River in the Upper Geyser Basin, and for the full six minutes he tells all that is on his mind, the one song over and over, in all its glory.

Background

Mountain chickadee, American robin, ruby-crowned kinglet, spotted sandpiper (0:50, 2:42), yellow-rumped warbler, and the Firehole River running nearby, together with occasional bubblings and gurglings of more distant geysers.

sasp-2

Photo by John Van de Graaff

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Photo by John Van de Graaff