Dickcissel, Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge, Pine Creek Unit
I got this tip from Mike, a gentleman I met last week at Mud Lake below the two nesting towers that are provided for Purple Martins. It turned out that he monitors not just these two towers, but some more at other locations in the area. Pretty soon we had a very good conversation about birds and nature habitats. Mike told me about the Pine Creek Unit of the Driftless Area National Wildlife Refuge and mentioned it as a good birding location. This area is located near Colesburg, Iowa, actually not very far from here, but I didn’t know about it. Thank you again Mike!
Orchard Oriole, male in its 1st summer
Well, yesterday I checked part of it out and although I spent only an hour and a half in this habitat with grassland, brush thicket, and forest, I had quite a few bird encounters and came back even with some photos. Be forewarned, there are not really any trails or roads in this area and I would recommend hiking boots and a good look at the map by the kiosk in the small parking lot at the end of the road.
American Tree Sparrow, this was a surprise for me since I have never seen them here except during winter time. Their breeding grounds are in Alaska and northern Canada.