Grassland Birds

There are always new birds to see.  We found a couple of these recently

The Chestnut-collared Longspur is known to nest in the Grasslands National Park so I hoped to go there one year in the early summer just to find the bird.

Instead we saw it recently while visiting the area around Estevan, Saskatchewan, very close to the US/Canada border and not far from the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border. 

 Once again, Ray was the first to realize we'd found a new bird.  We watched several flit in the grass.  They may have been closer to us than the Chimney Swifts in the last post, but they were harder to see as they kept disappearing in what appeared to be short grass.  It is so familiar to see a bird land in the grass and totally disappear.  Familiar but not a familiarity I enjoy.  I may still need to plan that trip to the Grassland Park.  My photos leave a lot to be desired.

Our other new bird was the Dickcissel, a strangely named bird that I never thought I'd see.  I'd put it in the category of rare birds that only full-time birders ever see.

But we saw and heard several near Roche Percee, Saskatchewan.  They weren't in any special birding spot, just in a grassy field beside an unnamed road and, obligingly, on the power line.