Fw: Lapland Lonspurs, Snow Buntings, in Frederick Co. MD.
William Leigh (tern@visuallink.com)
Sun, 17 Jan 1999 17:53:07 -0800
-----Original Message-----
From: William Leigh <tern@visuallink.com>
To: Valley Birds <jwcoffey@tricon.net>
Cc: mdosprey@ARI.net <mdosprey@ARI.net>
Date: Sunday, January 17, 1999 5:12 PM
Subject: Re: Lapland Lonspurs, Snow Buntings, in Frederick Co. MD.
>I managed to get up to Frederick County again this morning
>for a quick second try for Snow Buntings. I was in luck.
>I and several other birders got excellent looks at large groups of
>both Snow Buntings and Horned Larks. There were probably
>somewhere between 150 -200 Snow buntings and a slightly
>larger number of Horned Larks. Additionally, several Lapland
>Longspurs were spotted usually in association with the Larks.
>A few American Pipits were seen affording opportunity to
>compare and contrast all four of these species....The Longspurs were
>difficult to spot.
> I think I spent at least an hour searching
>through the flocks before I found one. A rather bright individual
>with splotchy black bib and prominent buffy orange nape area. The
>facial pattern consisted of a grayish ear patch outlined in black, a
buffy
>supercillium
>along with a whitish /buffy coronal stripe. I later saw two Longspur
>together in the
>same glass both of which were much more muted in color/plumage; however,
>the facial pattern was the same... Thats all folks...... oh there was one
>Meadowlark
>present as well.
>
>Location: Frederick County MD. on Oland road approximately .1-.2 tenths
>of a mile
>West of route 85/Lily Pons road. Look for the freshly fertilized areas.
>
>
>P.S. I noticed two things as regards behavior of these birds that I
>thought interesting:
> 1. When the Starlings arrived in mass around 11:00
>the Snow Buntings
> became very scarce.
> 2. The Lapland Longspurs seemed to always hang
with
>the Horned Larks.
> If anybody has corroborating or contradictory info... I would be
>obliged.
>
>
>Good Birding!
>William Leigh
>tern@visuallink.com
>
>