My persistence (bird-bothering, stalking) has paid off. I mention in a post a few weeks ago that I had heard birds calling in the weeds at Cedar Canyon that I thought might be Dickcissels, and indeed they were. They aren’t uncommon in this area and there has been an outbreak this year all over the Eastern half of the US, so I wasn’t surprised that we had a few around Hutchinson County.

I was walking from the small beach at Cedar Canyon towards Fritch Fortress trying to get photos of a young Franklin’s Gull and some Spotted Sandpipers when I heard a Dickcissel singing in some salt cedars behind me. I turned and there she was, at the top of a cedar, singing away. She posed nicely for me for a few seconds and then took off.

Here’s the young Franklin’s Gull next to a Ring-billed Gull.

This Killdeer harassed me for nearly an hour as I walked down the shore and back

One of the dozen or two Great Blue Herons that live at Meredith.

Here’s a more typical picture of a Greater Roadrunner. It was in the same area at Fritch Fortress as the one in the tree the other day, so it could be the same one.

A small flock of White-faced Ibis landing on a sandbar across from Fritch Fortress. Not sure what the other birds are-mallards maybe.