But do they make a good pie?

Every summer I drive up to the Carden Alvar. Or, I have done since I’ve had my own car. The alvar is a wonderful little section of Ontario, filled with species that you don’t find elsewhere. And I like going there to see the birds that I don’t see anywhere else in the province. One of which is the Grasshopper Sparrow.

Small and cryptic birds never get seen unless they like to sing. Fortunately, the Grasshopper Sparrow has a unique call, and there is one particular field I know that they always nest in. But other than that one place, I just never see the little suckers.

Most of the sparrows breed in the Canadian Prairies and the American Great Plain (which explains why it would also be found in the alvar, which tends to imitate grasslands. However, increasing agricultural pressures are reducing the numbers of Grasshopper Sparrow. Fields get ploughed before the end of the breeding season; both too frequent burning and over-grazing reduce the necessary cover. Which means that in the past 40 years, these little sparrows have declined by 65%.