Looks like a possible good year for Dickcissels in MD, or at least on this part of the shore.  While working on Chino Farm I had one male flyover on May 9th mixed in with a flock of ~30 Bobolinks. Yesterday there was a singing male in the restored grasslands in the early morning and later I saw a chase of what looked like 3 Dickcissels (no bins at the time), one of which was calling, the other two looked the same size and shape. Today Maren Gimpel had one singing male Dickcissel on Kibler rd, this bird is different from the male singing in the grasslands yesterday as it had a large black bib and a significant amount of yellow on the breast. So that's a minimum of 3 male Dickcissels, possibly five,  in this area within 10 days.

I should add that the Dickcissels that breed in the restored grasslands don't usually arrive until after the first week in June. Many sites in MD have singing Dickcissels much earlier that us, so we are very surprised to have so many sightings this early.


Dan Small
Chestertown, MD


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