Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 17:49:40 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Leslie Roslund Subject: Re: [[MDOSPREY] Lapland Longspur location in Caroline County] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I found the mixed flock of Longspurs, Snow Buntings and Horned Larks at the Sparks Road site this morning, and watched them from 9:00 to 10:30. My highly approximate count was: Horned Larks -- several hundred Snow Buntings -- perhaps 150 Lapland Longspurs --- 20 or more The suggestions of Marshall and Danny were of great help. From the experience of this morning I would also add that viewing worked best when I managed to find a way of getting a position beside the field and slightly ahead of the settled flock. This position had the birds (on the ground) working towards me, and at that time of day the sun was to my back so they were front lighted. The Longspurs seemed to be mixed more with the Larks than with the Snow Buntings. The Snow Buntings on the ground are quite easy to pick out. But after awhile, I learned to look patiently and carefully for the distinctive stripes on the back of the Longspurs, as compared to relatively smooth back coloring of the Larks. Once the Longspurs were isolated, it became possible to review and enjoy their distinctive markings around the head. And when you have pretty well found where they all are in the parts of the field, they will all fly up, and circle and swarm, and settle down somewhere else - and the searching out must begin all over again. -- A truly delightful way to spend a few hours of a morning! If snow actually occurs tonight and tomorrow, the viewing should be great because the flock is likely to be lighting right on the road as long as the snow covers the fields. Les Roslund Lroslund@bluecrab.org Easton, MD ================================================================= To unsubscribe send a message to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ==========================================================================================================================================