Tag: dickcissel

Lifer Dickcissel in Washington

A few days passed in the week before Christmas and I didn’t chase the Dickcissel found on the Sequim CBC by the Waggoner brothers. Finally, on the morning of Christmas Eve I decided to go for it. The weather held, and I got to the location in Sequim by about 8:15 AM on a cold clear almost sunny day. When I got there there was one other vehicle, and before long I saw a birder near the back of the big field where the bird had been being seen. I wandered back and he felt that the owners had in days past been tolerent of birders walking in the field, so we explored. He told me that he had been hearing the Dickcissel, and sure enough almost immediately the bird started giving its rattly call, exactly like the “flight call” on the Sibley app.
After a while other birders started to arrive, and before they came Peter and I had followed the rattle call from the south end to the north end of the brushline at the back of the field. After a while the bird showed, initially in a bare tree about half way from the road to the back of the field, then it flew to the mustard field, and finally perched in a tree at at the back of the field for good looks and these photos. A really successful chase.

For me WA species #404.