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Dickcissel nesting



Desperately trying to hold hte mid-summer birding blues at bay I drove out
to Dairyland Road, and, as usual, found it abuzz with activity. Blue
Grosbeaks are nesting in the little stream beyond Anilorac Farm, and so is
a Chipping Sparrow in the grape wine that goes up one of the slanting
wires attached to the telephone pole; but the most exciting sighting was
that of the Dickcissel pair building its nest; rather, I should say the
Dickcissel female building the nest, for this was one activity that seemed
to be strictly gender-dependent. The female kept flying to the very edge
of the cornfield on the left side of the road, and foraged about on the
ground for thin wisps of dried grass, and then flew across the road to a
patch of grass (indistinguishable from all the other patches in a field
full of grass). It would spend a minute or two in their I presume weaving
in the new straws, and would then fly back out and across the road to the
exact same patch of corn-field. The male, in the meantime, perched on the
wire and sang, and a couple of times he perched above the female on a
corn-stalk as she foraged for the straws. When he did this he had the
distinct look of a bird watching out for danger. And when danger loomed
in the distance in the form of a cowbird/blackbird (I couldn't tell
which) he acted very swiftly and chased away the bird all the way down the
field and out of my sight, and then circled back to take up his watch on
another corn-stalk on the other side of the field. I left him singing high
up on the wire. What a privilege to be in on their nest-building. But here
is the question: What happens to that nest when the farmer gets ready to
mow the field? Does anyone know if Dickcissel nests might escape a
mowing? I am not hopeful, but would like to hear speculations from others.

Other highlights included two warbling vireos foraging close to the nest
on the maple trees (but I could not relocate the nest), a flock of seven
Purple martins, lots of orchard orioles. Incidentally, the oriole nest is
still there and visible from the road, but there was no activity in
it. Tried to listen for the Kentucky on Borland Road, but it was not
singing, and on the way back had a Sharp-Shinned hawk fly over on the
outskirts of chapel hill. Oh, and there was a strange Summer tanager that
came out to perch on the telephone wires next to a grasshopper sparrow and
meadowlarks. It stayed a good five minutes and sang. How often does one
see a Summer Tanager and a Grasshopper sparrow in the same frame of
vision.

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SHANTANU PHUKAN
Lecturer in Urdu-Hindi & Indian Literature
University of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
Curriculum in Asian Studies
Alumni Hall 413C
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27599

phukan@email.unc.edu
919-962-6825
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