Bobolinks used to be plentiful in Ontario when I was a child. Sadly I rarely see or hear them now. I always loved to hear their calls. Humans must start preserving more wildlife habitat before wildlife disappears completely.
There are a number of bobolinks in my area, they are ground nesters and nest in the grassfields. My favorite go-to place, the Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary, is managed for the grasslands. We have about 40 nests (or maybe more, I am not sure). I love hearing the males calling as they fly - I think of them as "the machu pichu bird" because that is what the call sounds like to me.
Horribly, farmers usually mow their fields around this time (mid-June), just as the eggs have hatched and the babies are still in the nest. Think about that ... it happened recently when some town was getting ready for the Fourth of July!!! Fortunately, the fields will not be mowed at DWWS for another month.
Happily, local Audubon Societies (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont) has The Bobolink Project, in which they partner with local farmers and get them to hold off mowing their fields until early-mid-July, after the babies have fledged.
http://www.bobolinkproject.com/I hope Deb won't mind if I share a photo of one of the DWWS male Bobolinks.
Bobolink (male) by
NancyM, on Flickr
