Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 13:52:26 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Michael Bowen Subject: Lapland Longspurs in Frederick County Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Two Lapland Longspurs -- one a handsome male coming into breeding plumage, with substantial black at the throat and upper breast and a rich, chestnut-brown nape -- were found in a large flock of Horned Larks in a field northwest of Adamstown, Frederick County, at about 11 a.m today, January 25. The field where I saw the birds had been freshly manured in one part - it was on the east side of Howard Stup Rd., a short road that links Cap Stine Rd. and Mountsville Rd. The Horned Larks numbered somewhere between 100 and 150. I also saw Horned Larks in several places along Cap Stine, feeding along the road edges, in one place with White-crowned Sparrows. This area is within my sector for the Sugarloaf CBC, but on that count on January 5, Janet Shields and I saw absolutely NO larks or longspurs. A year earlier, on the Sugarloaf CBC in early 2003, Doris Brody and I had Lapland Longspurs with Horned Larks in a field less than 1/4-mile from where I saw them today. This general area has always been a good one to search for flocks, particularly when the fields are snow covered, as they were today. Mike Bowen Bethesda D. H. Michael Bowen (Mike) 8609 Ewing Drive Bethesda MD 20817-3845 Tel/Fax: (301) 530-5764 e-mail: dhmbowen@yahoo.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================