“Oh-sweet-Canada-Canada” or “Old-Sam-Peabody-Peabody” – no matter which phrase you associate with the song of the White-throated Sparrow, northern Virginia residents can expect to hear it throughout the coming months as these little birds sing of their return from breeding grounds in Canada.

What few people know is that there is a lot of natural habitat at Upton Hill, and that habitat attracts a lot of migratory birds. In that sense, Upton Hill is a microcosm of northern Virginia – we have lots of people and lots of development, but we also have lots of birds, especially in spring and fall.

More and more information exists to help determine the peak of migration in any given place. However, in Northern Virginia, we have a golden gem of a resource that highlights anything you might want to know about spring migration of landbirds – it’s a website called MPNature.