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| June 2018 Bird Of Month |
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| Dickcissel |
A sparrow-like bird of the prairie grasslands, the breeding male is colored like a tiny meadowlark,
with a black "V" on a yellow chest. In the Midwest in summer, male Dickcissels sometimes seem to sing their name from every
wire, fencepost, or weed stalk in prairie or farming country. Its song sounds like dick-dick-cissel, the first two notes being
sharp sounds followed by a buzzy, almost hissed cissel; repeated over and over again from a conspicuous perch on a fence,
bush, or weed. Its nest consists of a bulky cup of weed and grass stems, lined with finer grasses, rootlets, and hair placed
slightly above ground in dense grasses or in tree saplings. Most winter in the tropics, but a few spend the winter at bird
feeders in the Northeast, where they usually flock with House Sparrows. They can be found locally in places like the Owego
Wetlands.
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Loess Hills Audubon Society meets at the Dorothy Pecaut
Nature Center, 4500 Sioux River Road the first Thursday of the month during the months of October thru May at 7:30
P.M. The first meeting of the year is the annual potluck at Stone Lodge in Stone State Park at 6:00 P.M.
Each of these meetings includes a quality program of
various subjects. The public is invited and welcome to attend these meetings. Check the Meetings Page for information on upcoming
programs.
Birding outings occur monthly. The public is invited
and welcome to attend these outings. Check the Outings Page for information on upcoming outings.
Loess Hills Audubon Society
PO Box
5133
Sioux City, IA 51102
http://lhas.tripod.com/
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Mission Statement
The
Loess Hills Audubon Society exists to educate individuals and the general public, to
enjoy and promote birding, to support ornithology, and to be an advocate for wild areas and environmental issues. |
"Loess Hills Audubon Society is a Chapter of National Audubon Society, Inc."
Last Month's Bird Of The Month
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| Cattle Egret by Rob Towler |
The short, thick-necked Cattle Egret spends most of its time in fields rather than
streams. It forages at the feet of grazing cattle, head bobbing with each step, or rides on their backs to pick at ticks.
This stocky white heron has orange-buff plumes on its head and neck during breeding season. Cattle Egrets are native to Africa
but somehow reached northeastern South America in 1877. They continued to spread, arriving in the United States in 1941 and
nesting there by 1953. In the next 50 years they became one of the most abundant of the North American herons, showing up
as far north as Alaska and Newfoundland. A short-distance to long-distance migrant, most Cattle Egrets breeding in North America
migrate to Mexico, Central America, and the Greater Antilles. Several populations stay in the southern United States. They
not only migrate in predictable patterns but also wander erratically and may turn up well to the north of their normal range.
They can be found locally most anywhere during migration.
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