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  "description": "For weeks now, walking along Salisbury Road, Blue Spring Road, Jackson Avenue, and Garfield Way, I have been picking up the dry, mechanical trill of Chipping Sparrows from the pines and conifers lining the streets. I started keeping a rough tally. Six, sometimes eight on a single walk. They are clearly there. They just rarely...",
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  "publishedAt": "2026-04-23T17:03:09.000Z",
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  "tags": [
    "Backyard Birding",
    "BackYardBirding",
    "Bird Song",
    "Birding",
    "Chipping Sparrow",
    "chippingsparrow",
    "Montgomery Hills",
    "Montgomery Township"
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  "textContent": "For weeks now, walking along Salisbury Road, Blue Spring Road, Jackson Avenue, and Garfield Way, I have been picking up the dry, mechanical trill of Chipping Sparrows from the pines and conifers lining the streets. I started keeping a rough tally. Six, sometimes eight on a single walk. They are clearly there. They just rarely bother to show themselves. So I was not entirely surprised when one turned up in the sassafras tree outside the kitchen window. Surprised enough to grab the camera, but not enough to question it. It felt like a debt being paid. I photographed it through the glass. Adobe Lightroom Classic has a reflection removal tool, and it did most of the work cleanly. What I could not fix were the branches. They cut across the frame in ways that pull your eye away from the bird, and there was nothing to be done about that short of not taking the photograph at all — which felt like the wrong choice. The Chipping Sparrow is a small, unassuming bird. Rusty cap, clean grey breast, a neat dark eye stripe. Easy to overlook if you are not paying attention. But once you start hearing that trill, you hear it everywhere. It becomes part of the texture of a walk, something you half-consciously track without quite registering you are doing it. I think that is what I like most about backyard birding. You are not going anywhere. You are just paying attention to what is already there. Sometimes it comes to you.",
  "title": "Chipping Sparrow",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-20T00:25:43.000Z"
}