Grassland birds are the fastest-declining bird species in the US, with a 34% loss since 1970. Native grass expert John Snowden knows how we can help!

Last week in the greenbelt, a distinctive bird call caught my ear — dick-sis-sel, dick-sis-sel. The onomatopoetic call of a dickcissel, a grassland bird that’s found in urban pocket prairies to be a safe habitat. And we have at least one!

John Snowden is not only the top native grass expert in North Texas, he grows them as well. In our Creekmere Meadow walk and talk last Sunday, he brought great hope to the idea of turning the meadow infested with KR bluestem (KRB), an non-native invasive imported from Eurasia by the King Ranch, into a genuine tallgrass Blackland Prairie.

According to the Texas Invasive Species Institute, KRB “has been observed to diminish grassland bird diversity and abundance, by reducing insect diversity.”

Large patches of eastern gamagrass and switchgrass created over a decade ago from seeds provided by Clymer Meadow have obliterated swaths of KRB. Maximilian sunflowers are suppressing it as well. There is a surprising amount of little bluestem and sideoats grama, too.

I have been collecting Indiangrass seeds from the Entry Meadow and strewing them about the Creekmere Meadow. You can see the results now in the east end. Young Indiangrass plants are strong and sending up golden seedheads. They’ll just continue to grow and spread.

With a little fundraising, we can accelerate this process this fall and buy some native grass plants from Snowden, especially big bluestem. In the next couple of weeks he will create a prairie restoration plan for us.

Maybe, just maybe, by spring of 2027 we can attract nesting pairs of dickcissel and eastern phoebe, another grassland bird that’s comfortable in urban areas.

Tallgrass prairies also draw in insectavores like kingbirds and scissor-tailed flycatchers, which are delightful to watch swooping about for flying bugs at dusk. If we’re really lucky, the young of scissor-tailed flycatchers that nest at White Rock Lake will call us home.

Let’s do this! Fundraising ideas appreciated. For the Entry Garden, we do plant sales. Not sure what to do for the greenbelt.

Here are photos from our meadow walk-and-talk last Sunday.