Dickcissel Dial: Saturday, August 20th, 2022

[Jarod Hitchings]

Welcome to the Dickcissel Dial (815) 200-8650 the central Illinois birding hotline sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited in Springfield. Today is Saturday August, 20th, 2022. The Mason county limpkin crossed over into Cass county. Speaking of Mason county there's shorebird activity with Hudsonian godwit, Black-bellied plover, Wilson's phalarope, Baird's & Western sandpipers. There was a Buff-breasted sandpiper foraging at a sod farm near Champaign and a Red-necked phalarope in Clinton county. Report of the Swallow-tailed kite continued in Knox county and was later spotted in Peoria county. Warblers migrating include a cerulean in Tazewell and black-throated green & Tennessee in Champaign. The female-painted bunting is present on Front street in East St. Louis. Least tern in Randolph county. Snowy egret in Clark and Livingston counties. Yellow-bellied sapsucker in Kankakee. Snow Goose continues in McLean and Christian counties with a Trumpeter swan in Peoria county. Common Gallinule at the Lock and Dam 13 in Whiteside county.

Now for this week's trivia question: what unofficial and more appropriate habitat name was once used for the Mountain plover? Remember Henslow's sparrow says "tsilick" in what Roger Tory Peterson described as "one of the poorest vocal efforts of any bird." Please leave answers or share sightings and enjoy the outdoors!

The Hitchings Family

Sherman, Illinois