24 April 2011

Dick Drops in to High Island...TEXAS (24 April)


After a shockingly quiet morning (one of the quietest I have known at this time of year) we retired to view the sewage pond at the back of Houston Audubon's Boy Scout Woods a strategy we use when we cannot find any migrants around the woods. So after a few brief looks at unidentifiable cuckoos rocketing through the trees, we found ourselves overlooking the marsh in the hope of a Purple Gallinule that might take the edge off the pain of not finding many warblers in the woods. The Purple Gallinule duly obliged as it crept around the reedy pool, that held a lone Lesser Yellowlegs shadowing a Solitary Sandpiper sharing the same marshy pond. Then suddenly a Dickcissel dropped down into the grasses beside us saving our morning and giving us an unforgettable moment with this attractive migrant.

The question remains though exactly what is a Dickcissel: a blackbird or a bunting? I'll allow taxonomists to fight it out on that one, although we can enjoy thinking about it all the same.

1 comment:

Mary Howell Cromer said...

I had never heard of this bird, but it sure is an attractive one~