photograph by Brian Willson

 What does a eastern towhee sound like?
Drink your teeeaaa!

Brian’s note: A towhee is a large, colorful sparrow. [They] are locally common, e.g., they’re all over Beech Hill in Rockport. (In fact, in past Beech Hill bird surveys I’ve done with Kristen Lindquist, this is the only species that invariably occurred at each of our ten specified observation points.) However, they do tend to stick to tangled hedgerows and thick undergrowth and so can be a challenge to see. Incidentally, I hear “towhee” pronounced “towie” around here, whereas down south, I always used to hear it called “toe-hee.”