This Morning Outside

by Diane Porter

June 25, 2011
Birdwatching Dot Com
Fairfield, Iowa

Three tisks and a sizzle

I went out as the sun came up, to see what was busy in the grassy field. All over the field, I heard dickcissels. Dick-Dick-Dick Sisisisizzle. You see how they got their name.

This fellow (above) popped up for a look. He's not an adult, just a one-year-old male, but he was singing his sizzling song.

And he has a mate (at left), who peeked up from deeper in the grass. They made happy that the grassy field is here for them.

Dickcissels are a member of a special club, birds who nest only in grass. Like Henslow's sparrows, bobolinks, and grasshopper sparrows, they are not found the woods, nor in most people's back yards. If you want to see a dickcissel, you must take yourself to a grassy field.

—Diane Porter

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