Nature: Lincoln's sparrows gather in Ohio

“We found more wildness in this species than in any other inhabiting the same country…” — John James Audubon, writing about the Lincoln’s sparrow.

In June 1833, the great naturalist and pioneer ornithologist set out for the wildlands of Labrador. In Audubon’s day the giant northern Canadian province was largely a mystery. Rumors of new birds to be discovered provided irresistible fodder to the birdman, and he set sail in the company of several companions.

One fine day, they heard a beautiful and unfamiliar song and pursued the singer. One of Audubon’s crew, the intrepid 21-year-old Thomas Lincoln, caught up with the songbird, took aim and dropped the songster. In those days, shotgun ornithology was the rule.

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Upon showing his prize to Audubon, he pronounced it a new species, heaped praise on his young colleague and ended up naming the bird Lincoln’s sparrow ( Melospiza lincolnii ).

That Audubon considered the Lincoln’s sparrow to possess “more wildness” than any other bird in this remote northern land seems remarkable. It was competing with Atlantic puffins, gyrfalcons, red-throated loons and many other seemingly more spectacular boreal species.

But one must know the little sparrow on its breeding grounds to fully appreciate its allure. When wooing mates and defending territories, male Lincoln’s sparrows cast off their innate introversion and sing boldly from prominent perches. The song is a beautiful series of buzzy trills that rise and fall and are possessed of a curious brooding quality, as if it were the spruce and fir of the dark northern forests singing themselves.

While Lincoln’s sparrow nests on a broad front across the great boreal forest of Canada and Alaska, the northernmost U.S. and south in western mountain ranges, it winters in the southern U.S. and south into Mexico and Central America. Migration is when most people see them , and plenty move through Ohio.

Northbound sparrows pass through Ohio in May, primarily. Curiously, the males rarely sing in migration; that’s a treat reserved for those bold enough to visit the sparrows on their nesting grounds.

Far more Lincoln’s sparrows pass through in fall, their ranks augmented by juveniles hatched that summer. However, they are tougher to see than in spring. This sparrow is a skulker, prone to foraging in dense tangles of senescing autumn foliage , often on or near the ground.

Little brown waifs flitting through the vegetation, barely allowing a look, are often in company with other sparrow species.

On Sept. 21, Cleveland Museum of Natural History employee Becky Donaldson and I led a field trip into Mentor Marsh as part of the inaugural Headlands Birding Festival .

Mentor Marsh, 20 miles east of Cleveland and on the shore of Lake Erie, is a 1,000-acre wetland. Not long ago, it was cloaked by the invasive giant reed ( Phragmites australis ), but in a remarkable restoration story, the museum has managed to nearly eradicate that plant. Botanical diversity spiked, and so have the sparrows.

We tallied 15 Lincoln’s sparrows on our foray, but seeking shy sparrows with 25 people is not optimal. I knew far more sparrows were present and returned alone at dawn the following morning. In two hours of slipping through a mile of marsh, I tallied a remarkable 75 Lincoln’s sparrows.

At least eight other species of sparrow were present, many in large numbers, but I was fixated on Thomas Lincoln’s namesake sparrow. The 75 birds that I saw may represent the largest single site total in Ohio, and there were undoubtedly scores more in the massive marsh.

Sparrows are primarily vegan, and plants that produce bountiful seed crops are vital. Now that Mentor Marsh is free of its cloak of 15-foot-tall giant reed grasses, botanical diversity has skyrocketed. The sparrows seemed especially smitten with the fruit of buttonbush, rice cutgrass and various smartweeds.

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The sparrows at Mentor Marsh had just made a 60-mile nocturnal flight across Lake Erie from Canada, one leg of a much longer journey.

Upon reaching land, it’s important that they have immediate access to food and cover. Much of the Lake Erie shoreline has been developed, and long-distance migrants must head even further inland before finding refuge.

Kudos to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for restoring one of the great Lake Erie marshes. The sparrows and scores of other birds thank them.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first and third Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at jim mccormac.blogspot.com .

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Nature: Lincoln's sparrows gather in Ohio