IN THE MEADOWS

Dickcissel, Dubuque, Iowa

Today I have a couple bird species for you that are threatened by habitat loss. I still find them every year in a meadow that can be easily turned into commercial use. It has been developed for this purpose but so far nobody has built anything there. I hope every summer it stays this way.

Both species are beautiful songbirds and even when they are hunkered down in the grass, like yesterday afternoon, we can at least hear them. I waited patiently and had a few moments when they left the grass, perched on a higher point, and posed for my camera.

Bobolink

Male Dickcissel

NATURE CLICKS #449 - YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD

Green Island Wetlands, Mississippi Valley, Iowa

It has been six years that I saw and photographed a Yellow-headed Blackbird in the Green Island Wetlands. There was a habitat, a smaller pond with lots of cattail plants, that went through a lot of abuse from construction related measurements by the railroad company that operates the neighboring railroad track. As a result the Yellow-headed Blackbirds disappeared from that location, the only one I knew where this species lived in this area.

Today Joan and I went back to the wetlands in hope to see the White-faced Ibis again. But they had moved on and were not found anywhere. Instead we saw two male Yellow-headed Blackbirds in this thorny tree while driving slowly down the gravel road on the dike. This gives me hope that this species is not lost for this area. Their call is a little different from that of the Red-winged Blackbird, which can be found in abundance. I will keep my ears and eyes open during this summer and maybe I can locate a new breeding ground somewhere between the reeds…