Smith's Longspur Saturday AM (May 9)

[Smith, Macklin]

Birders,

Sorry for late report: was at a conference in Kalamazoo this weekend with limited computer access.  Anyhow, there was at least one Smith's Longspur present at the previously reported spot this Saturday morning.  I tried very early in the AM and got lucky. Also rooting around in the corn stubble were a few pipits, a couple of Horned Larks, a Solitary Sandpiper, a few Killdeer, RWBBs, and a few Savanna Sparrows. I only had one Smith's Longspur, and it did the favor of calling, then flying a few corn rows' distance just around dawn, so I could locate it (even then with some difficulty) and study it. The area with the longspur was south of the road and perhaps 100 feet east of a dike and small pump-although there were more birds to the southwest of this pump area. My impression was that the longspur would walk around-and even dash around a bit-from time to time but spent much more time immobile (and often invisible). It was more often out of sight than in sight.  I heard no other longspur vocalizations for the 45 minutes or so that I lingered, nor did this bird fly again.  As said, I think I was very lucky even to see it.

Macklin

Macklin Smith
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of English
University of Michigan

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