For many years a pair of these birds have lived in our swamp. They come in April and the male announces his arrival from an elm top below the orchard. They never join the other birds at our food tables but down on the tussocks they stay—che-che-che-che-cheing continuously, even thru August when other birds are silent.
During September the song is rendered only at morning and two or three good night salutations.
In old days when the gun was mightier than the pencil, I often flushed them from reeds when rail shooting while poling a skiff thru the Great South Bay meadows of Long Island.
Eastern North America to the Plains. From Labrador, Newfoundland and British provinces, south to Gulf States.