On Tuesday this week I got my "Gladys" Breeding Bird Survey route done, rather
late because of a schedule involving a lot of travelling this month.
The highlight was a couple of Dickcissels singing on County Road 635, 0.95-1.0
miles south of the intersection of 635 and 761, which is ½ mile or less SW of
the town of Gladys. At this BBS stop one pulls over on the east side of 635 at
a driveway that has a satellite dish out near the road at the edge of the
woods. The berm is fairly narrow here. But the road is a fairly quiet one.
Across the road is a field of hay I believe. Both birds were singing from out
in the hayfield out of sight in the hay. But one of the individuals a couple
of times in the 20 minutes I was there flew up into the top of one of the trees
on the east side of the road and sang from there. The songs of both males, was
atypical, sounding to me like only the last half of a typical Diskcissel song,
i.e. "ciss ciss ciss". I hung around at the stop that long until I was able to
get a visual on the male that occasionally sang from the top of the tree, so I
could confirm that it was indeed a Dickcissel. The species has occurred on the
count three times in the fourteen previous years that I have done the count.
Other highlights of the route this year were a flock of nine Wood Ducks, a
couple of Broad-winged Hawks, a flock of seven Wild Turkey's encountered three
previous times on the route since I've been doing it, but not as a flock), and
one Red-headed Woodpecker (encountered six previous times, but appreciated
because of its general scarcity).
Gene Sattler
Lynchburg
