On July 13, great birders and good friends Rich and Barb told me that a very uncommon and rather rare bird has been reported a few miles from my home.

You know what that means? The next morning I’m inputting the address in the app and off I go. My goal was to find a dickcissel. An open-meadow loving bird, rather uncommon, and for me, one that I’ve never seen before. It is one of the few bird species that I have not seen in our state.

Along the route there, I passed a beautiful farm and the first “good” of the day was a sign proudly displayed indicating that this farm was in farmland preservation. In rapidly developing Lehigh County, including this northern Lehigh County area, it was good to see we have some more farmland, meadows and grasslands still holding on.

The next “good” for the day was, sure enough, another birder from a nearby county was busy taking pictures, and I knew I was in luck. A male dickcissel was perched on a weed stalk and “singing away.” I now had a new bird for my life list.

But here is where the “bad” fits in: A large land scraper and bulldozer were working less than a 100 yards away. I was in the middle of a future housing development. Ribbon-topped stakes marked property lines and replaced the metal posts with barbed wire that once enclosed a pasture and meadow area on the now-abandoned farm.

I’m guessing that this project of habitat destruction is encompassing more that 60 acres. If I want to find any good here, it’s that some happy young couples will be living in homes, probably costing three quarters of a million dollars. They will be so happy having a beautiful and protected farm adjoining their development.

But their lifelong dream is taking away some of the already-dwindling open spaces for wildlife. I, of course, only view this meadow with covered Canada thistle, black knapweed, some clover and various grasses as gone forever.

That morning and the next morning, when I tried to get some better photos, I found grasshopper sparrows, Savannah sparrows, indigo buntings, red-winged blackbirds, a pair of killdeer and many other birds doing their best to finish their nesting chores. It will be their last ones there. Hopefully, the construction will not destroy their last nests from this year.

Grassland birds like the dickcissel, grasshopper sparrow, Eastern meadowlarks and others are seeing their populations decline rapidly, mostly because of urban sprawl. When will we slow this destruction?

If it isn’t bad enough to see the wonderful habitat lost, think of the next consequence. This past week, watching various weather reports, they were filled with flash flood watches and warnings. I’m sure you know that in my and probably your lifetimes, we seldom had that problem.

But remember, in this 60-acre project, probably half of the land will be covered in blacktop streets, driveways, rooftops, sidewalks and patios. The rain will not have a place to soak in. We really don’t have too many more terrible thunderstorms today than we did back then, just too much of our soils covered with impermeable materials so water has to go somewhere. You may remember this from an old commercial: “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”

Now for the “ugly.” When I turned around to go back home, elated at my finds but disgusted by more lost habitat, I looked across the nearby protected farm and a half-mile away was a million square foot warehouse. Yes, it employs many people, but critical lands were lost. Argh!!!

We do have some solutions.

Carbon County has joined with those concerned with this terrible loss of land and is part of the state’s Farmland Preservation Act. For these areas to be protected, 50% of a landowner’s property must be agricultural. Our voters approved a referendum in 2022 to approve funding to preserve water quality, wildlife habitat and the forests.

Imagine how important it would be to have a 100-acre property hosting the headwaters of a clear, clean stream that feeds a valuable freshwater watershed, let alone the wildlife living there. We can’t stop progress, but we can now make inroads to protect these habitats that are now so essential.

Note: After just watching Clint Eastwood and some other stars in the 1960 spaghetti Western, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” I thought it would be a good way to pique some interest. Enjoy, get out there, and appreciate what resources we have and how to protect more for those that follow us on this planet. …

Test your outdoor knowledge: Which of these bird species is actually seeing an increase in their population in the last 40 to 50 years? A. peregrine falcons; B. Eastern bluebirds; C. pileated woodpeckers. D. All of these; E. None of these.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: A young sandhill crane is called a colt.

Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com