Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 64
Drink Your Teaaaa!
R
ETURNING ROBINS are spring's most widely
recognized sign but, here in Pennsylvania, the Eastern towhee is an equally appropriate seasonal icon.
Towhees like shrubby woodlands, and by early April they
return to thickets and forest edges throughout the Commonwealth. Though unfamiliar to many state residents, our most
recent breeding bird atlas found towhees common everywhere except Lancaster
County's intensely worked farmlands and Philadelphia's urban core. If you live
anywhere else, towhees are nearby from spring through fall.
Its song alone is reason enough to know and welcome the towhee, and singing
males are not shy; they have attitude.
In my own fortunate case, a male - possibly the same male across many springs
- perches prominently just above the grapevines beyond my back porch. When
he thrusts out his breast, throws back his head and trills his unmistakable, Drink
your teaaaa! claim to the neighborhood, I know winter is finished.
Towhees belong to the sparrow clan, known for drab attire. But the male towhee's
plumage is no less distinct than his song, and far more striking than the robin's.
He wears a coal-black "helmet" that cloaks his crown, face and throat, tapering to
a dapper wedge across his breast, sharply contrasting the snow-white belly. Along
his flanks, he displays broad strips of robin-red. On some individuals, bright red
eyes accent the outfit, but eye-color varies geographically. Female towhees present
a similar plumage-pattern, but are warm-brown where the male brandishes black.
Towhees make an impression, too, with their foraging.
Many times, I have been out in the fall with a bow across my lap and heard
a sharp disturbance in fallen leaves. The sound has a rhythm alien to a deer's
gait, and is too cadenced for a squirrel. But if you hear this staccato rustle and
watch, you will likely see a towhee, sweeping away dry leaves with both feet
and a hop to find grubs, worms, even beechnuts or small acorns. Imagine a wild
turkey scratching, but with both feet at once. That's how a towhee finds forage.
Their attraction to scruffy second-growth woods points out the influence and
power of changing conditions over time, within our state's forests.
Observers' notes indicate towhees were even more abundant here in the 1960s
and '70s. Ecologists think that spike in towhee numbers reflects unnaturally high
population peaks when early successional woods were more widespread.
To savor spring better, keep eyes and ears open for towhees. They add color,
flair and an unforgettable song to the season.
64
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017
Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - Intro
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - Cover1
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - Cover2
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - Contents
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 2
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 3
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 4
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 5
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 6
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 7
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 8
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 9
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 10
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 11
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 12
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 13
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 14
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 15
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 16
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 17
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 18
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 19
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 20
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 21
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 22
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 23
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 24
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 25
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 26
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 27
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 28
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 29
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 30
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 31
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 32
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 33
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 34
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 35
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 36
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 37
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 38
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 39
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 40
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 41
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 42
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 43
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 44
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 45
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 46
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 47
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 48
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 49
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 50
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 51
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 52
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 53
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 54
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 55
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 56
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 57
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 58
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 59
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 60
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 61
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 62
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 63
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - 64
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - Cover3
Pennsylvania Game News - April 2017 - Cover4
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