Date: 3/11/26 7:47 pm From: William Flack via groups.io <sparvophile...> Subject: [NEBirds] Wintering Rusty Blackbirds?
Fellow NEBirders—
This afternoon, I birded a stretch of county road N in eastern Dodge County, including the Maple Creek crossing. Along the deep ditch just west of the creek, I found a male and two female Rusty Blackbirds.
I'd also seen three Rusties at that very location (in the same stretch of deep ditch) on December 5, 2025. Unfortunately, I didn't record the sexes of those three birds, so don't know if they matched today's birds. But it seems reasonable to speculate that they might've been the same, and spent the whole winter here.
I don't know if they'd have had open water, in the creek or from seeps, throughout the winter. From my limited knowledge of Rusties, I'd guess that they'd want shallow water, or at least wet ground, on which to forage, and that might've affected whether they stayed for the winter or not.
Anyone from the east end of the state care to weigh in on the subject of wintering Rusties?
