white crowns and white throats as epic as the leafs vs the canadiens

This fall we have been having a wonderful time banding  sparrows  specifically we have been banding a great deal of white crowned and white throated sparrows  and while banding is never a competition  it is always interesting to see how the  numbers play out. This particular fall we have been catching a great deal of white throated sparrows I would say more than we normally catch and we usually catch a lot of of white crowned sparrows. I had the feeling that it was worth checking the numbers to see what we had caught more of.  And just like some birders will  tend to identify with one species more than the other  it seems a natural inclination to bring up old rivalries like the leafs and the candiens.  So for a moment before  glimpsing to the bottom to see the final numbers for this years  sparrow  debate I was interested to look up the  record of the leafs vs the candiens .  In  742 regular season games  montreal  leads the leafs with 342 wins to  286 for the leafs. They also have the edge in playoff match ups  with 42 to 29.  I am not making a good case for the leafs or the white throats as  over the years

we have caught  2880 white crowns  and only 1817 white throats.

This  year however  the numbers are super close  we have banded 81  white throats  to date and 75 white crowns. Why am I cheering for the white throats ? Is it because they are the" under-birds?"  Is it because they breed in our area and we hear their song all May and June  and  the white crowns only stop here to feed as they prepare for the next stage of their journey. Or is it because the white throat call was one of  the first birds  beside a loon I ever learned  by ear? Who knows, such musings have to be endured by the reader as I have been doing this long enough to see patterns emerging at the marsh and want to pass them along. Clearly I look forward to each species each spring and fall. After a long winter  I look forward to hearing  the song of a white throat as much as   a victory of the leafs over the Canadiens.  Hopefully I will never have to wait as long as leaf fans have for a Stanley Cup. That would be a cruel thing to do to someone who loves sparrows. Go leafs go! Murph