I was able to get some photos of a pair of Dickcissels in the tall grass along the Mississippi levee. The female was quite the poser, but the male was more cautious and tended to stay hidden among the grass. These “sparrow-like birds” can be found in our area from early May to August.
“Thus hand in hand through life we’ll go;
Its checker’d paths of joy and woe
With cautious steps we ‘ll tread.”
―Nathaniel Cotton
walking on a country road 
Hi Rebecca, Nice pictures. The quote resonates with me as my wife and I recently celebrated our 24th anniversary. She is also the social one of this pair.
Congratulations! I’m afraid it is the opposite here. My husband is the social one. I guess it’s true that opposites often attract. 🙂
I’ve never seen this type of bird before around here, but I like that yellow patch on its breast. The male did have a little attitude going in the last photo … he thought you were intruding on his time with the Missus.
This was the first time I had seen this one too. They are pretty little birds. I was hoping to see some Bobolink like I saw last year in this area, but haven’t seen them yet.
You have many pretty birds there – we just have the ordinary robins, jays, cardinals, red-winged blackbirds, some woodpeckers and the pest birds like sparrows and starlings. That’s about it. I’ve been trying to get to a state park this Spring after buying a special pass to do so, but it has rained every weekend for at least the last 6-7 weeks and if it not rainy, it is soggy from torrential rains. When it wasn’t raining, we had that 90-degree weather and very muggy. This is very unusual weather for us. We now have threats of mosquitoes and ticks. Hard to get grass cut due to all the rain. Eventually I hope to get to some of these woodsy areas – I’d love to see some owls.
I’ve found that a variety of birds migrate or nest around the Mississippi levee. That is where these photos were taken. State parks are great places to see different birds. I hope your weather improves and you are able to visit one soon.
I hope so too Rebecca. The weather has not only put a damper on Spring jaunts for me, but we are now being cautioned about chiggers in addition to the ticks and mosquitoes I mentioned before. A friend of mine who lives near Rochester, NY had to go to the doctor from bites she got working in her garden. She is on medicine and a topical cream for the itch which she says you cannot think straight for the unbearable itch from the chiggers.
Welcome to my world. Mosquitoes, ticks and chiggers are normal here, though the chiggers have never bothered me. But the mosquitoes absolutely love me! Also add poison ivy, and lots of it. I use to could wade around in the stuff and it didn’t bother me, but that caught up with me last year when I had my first official case. 😦
That’s rough and I hear all these warnings, so I am going to re-think going to all the marshlands I intended to visit, unless it gets better. We have more rain tomorrow, then soaring to 95 degrees a couple of days so that will make the mosquitoes even worse. The morning anchor on the radio station I listen to tangled in poison ivy and has been out all week. I had a friend in Virginia had it and had the blisters covering her hands for a long time and couldn’t work either. She was pulling what she thought was weeds around her pole mailbox at the end of her property and it was poison ivy.
Sounds a lot like our weather. Sorry your friend had such a hard time. My husband and I have learned that it’s best to just go immediately and get a shot and cream that dries it up fast. Other wise, it can just go on and on.
Hopefully that will help you both. I just scrolled through Carol’s many (many, many) Facebook posts back to June 7th to see what she was given … she said she felt burning under her skin. Her doctor prescribed: Lidocaine, hydrocortisone cream and Benadryl.