Dearborn Dickcissels - 23 Jun 2012


Earlier this week Julie Craves and Darrin O'Brien reported seeing Dickcissels at the corner of Ford Rd. and Mercury in Dearborn, MI.  Why the fuss? Dickcissels have not been reported in Dearborn since 1907! Cathy Carroll was able to get a couple of nice images of the birds - check them out on her blog.

Ford Motor Company has planted large 'sunflower' fields in the vicinity of their World Headquarters, and these wildflower fields have attracted a nice mix of birds throughout the year.  I headed to the edge of the Ford Rd. / Mercury Dr. fields and managed to see four Dickcissels: 3 males and a female.  Unfortunately for me the birds were at the farthest ends of the field from my location.  I had hoped to digiscope some birds, so I purposely parked at the west side of the field so the late afternoon sun would be at my back.  I managed a couple of record shots from well over 200' away.


It was also nice to see so many Savannah Sparrows, both adults and juvenile birds working the fields.  I managed several nice captures of these little sparrows from as close as 15 feet away.  A couple of Song Sparrows were a bonus, as well.



I drove over to another area of the field and managed to find a male Bobolink singing from a high perch.  I managed to salvage this image by applying an oil painting filter to it in Photoshop after saturating the crap out of it.


Since the fields are marked "No Trespassing" I made sure to stay to the edge, and just enjoy the chorus of "dik-dik-seer-seer-seer" or "dik-dik-di-di-di" emanating from across the field.  While I listened to the birds I spotted a bumblebee foraging atop a bright orange milkweed flower and decided to digiscope it from about 20' away.


Its a nice success story for the City of Dearborn and a major 'hats-off' to Ford Motor Company, for creating these wonderful patches of habitat.

Dearborn Ford Plantings--Ford & Mercury, Wayne, Michigan, US
Jun 23, 2012 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Protocol: Traveling
0.3 mile(s)
Checklist Comments:     Earlier this week Julie Craves and Darrin O'Brien reported seeing Dickcissels at the corner of Ford Rd. and Mercury in Dearborn, MI.  Why the fuss? Dickcissels have not been reported in Dearborn since 1907!  Cathy Carroll was able to get a couple of nice images of the birds - check them out on her blog.
4 species

Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis)  6
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)  1
Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus)  1
Dickcissel (Spiza americana)  4

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S100310869

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)