On Michael Price's mystery bird,
> Scott Richardson writes
> > Dickcissel?

To which Michael replied,
> I know nothing about this species, so can't judge-- does the call note and
> jizz conform to the description? A yummy speculation, though.

I know next to nothing about this species. My first was on an island off the
coast of Maine, where it was probably unexpected, but that was a late-summer
wanderer. The voice is what drew strong attention, a raspberry-like bzrrt, if I
remember it right. Size: smaller than a Bobolink, but too large for most
sparrows.
A few days ago, I had my second Dickcissel experience, when about 30 fell out
of the sky at me while I stood beside a single-lot suburban wetland on South
Padre Island, Texas. They caught themselves before crashing, and landed on a
puny tree a half dozen steps away. Mostly males. Direct sun. They covered the
bare-branched sapling for ten seconds, then scattered. We saw only two during
the rest of our watch.
--
Scott Richardson
northeast Seattle
salix at halcyon.com