I would say dickcissels are noteworthy anywhere in our region or in Ohio.
The Indiana-Ohio border counties are the species "stronghold" in Ohio--they
tend to fluctuate year-to-year throughout the rest of the state and even in
our region--but how many times do we here reports of fields with dickcissels
around Memorial Day that are wiped out not long after Flag Day? So who knows
how productive these breeding sites *really* are.

I remember that Dave Russell had a dickcissel site staked out in Butler
County last year--near Riley was it?--but it was mowed, which is the typical
fate of grassland birds in our area.

Dickcissels tend to be late nesters in Ohio. Peterjohn mentions dickcissels
typically nest in June with young fledging in July and early August. So if
your friend is dependent on this field for income or for his livestock and
can't wait to mow, it might actually be better to mow earlier rather than
later before the birds are all nesting. Or maybe he could mow sections here
and there . . . tough call. I'm glad I'm not a farmer forced to make that
decision.

I'd like to hear more about the field and how it turns out. It would be
interesting to thoroughly survey Butler County, or some other adjacent
county, someday to figure out just how many grassland bird sites are out
there and how things work out for the birds at these sites . . . but I think
you'd almost need an army.

Take care,
---Mike Busam
West Chester, OH

----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Burgess, Lara Askill" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 9:31 PM
Subject: Dickcissel


Would the reporting of a group of dickcissels in Butler Co. be sigificant?
Tomorrow I'm going to try to find some nests because they are in an area
that has a chance of being mowed. The landowner is fairly progressive about
bird habitats, so hopefully they will go along with a delay if there are
indeed nests.