Dickcissels at Fernald Preserve

Friday afternoon I made my first-ever trip to Fernald Preserve. It's on the west side of town about 45 minutes from my house, so it's not that far, but even as recently as five years ago I would never have considered going there. Fernald was a uranium processing plant opened in 1951, and to anyone who was a kid growing up in Cincinnati in the 60s and 70s, it was a very scary place. In the early and mid 80s, reports of radioactive leaks and environmental contamination coupled with illnesses from people living near the plant always dominated the headlines. Needless to say, at that time the word "Fernald" was never associated with anything good, but the place was closed in 1989 and became a government Superfund cleanup site. A 4.4 billion dollar cleanup project followed and in 2008 Fernald Preserve was the result. Now, sweeping meadows filled with native plants identified from an 1819 land survey of the area cover the 1,050-acre site, and grassland birds such as Dickcissels, Bobolinks, Henslow's Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows, and Grasshopper Sparrows are nesting. Holding ponds dot the preserve and attract waterfowl throughout the year, and during the winter Short-eared Owls, Rough-legged Hawks and Northern Harriers are always reported. Basically, the former radioactive toxic wasteland has become a birder's paradise...

...a beautiful Dickcissel (Spiza americana) perches in the meadow near the Nature Center at Fernald Preserve. Look closely at his lower mandible...it's blue!

...the meadows were filled with Dickcissels. I've never seen so many in one place.

...yellows and blacks on the front, rich browns and rusts on the back...

...his russet shoulder patch stands out nicely in the sun.

...with his pattern of bright yellow and black on his chest, it's easy to see why this bird is sometimes called the "Little Meadowlark..."

...of course his constant singing from the highest perch might add to that moniker too!

...because Fernald's reputation was so notorious in the 80s and 90s (even after the continued reports of Fernald's transformation over the past couple of years), friends wanted me to check in with them upon my return to make sure I wasn't glowing--luckily, I wasn't (except from the heat!). I will definitely go back to Fernald. I'd like to spend more time in the meadows to get closer to the Dickcissels for better photographs. I had to crop these photos down more than I like, and the quality suffers.