Birds and Nature

I recorded the Dickcissel shown in the photos below and finally got it uploaded to Xeno-canto. Below is the player along with a sonogram of that recording. And here is a recording made by Colorado birder Nathan Pieplow in Prowers County in a location about 175 miles east of Canon City. The song types that this Dickcissel sings are different from the one I recorded in Canon City. It has been my experience that the Dickcissels in Canon City most commonly sing a song like the one I recorded above and that Dickcissels I have listened to in far eastern Colorado including Prowers County sing different songs than the birds that come to Canon City. That is the reason I have wanted to record a Canon City Dickcissel to show the differences in the sonograms and to hear the differences in the recordings. SeEtta

I led a field trip to see among other birds the Bobolink and Dickcissel I found in Canon City this week. Wouldn't you know, they started mowing that hay field last night and the hay mower was on the field when we got there this morning. I had to work harder to refind the Bobolink and Dickcissel but did so after hearing their distinctive calls. We saw both the male and female Bobolink as the female flew out of the hay when the mower got close. Sadly this likely indicates she was on her nest and waited to the last minute to flee. Yes, the contents of the nest-eggs and/or nestlings-are most likely destroyed. We only saw the male Dickcissel and he sang intermittently as his hay field was mowed around him. I stopped by after the field trip was over at 1 pm and the male Dickcissel was still singing though the hay had been mowed in the area he had been in. Tonight after 7 pm I drove over to check and found both the male and female Bobolink in the totally mowed field. Maybe t...