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Re: Adamstown Lapland Longspur yesterday

From:

Kathy Calvert

Reply-To:

Kathy Calvert

Date:

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:56:15 -0500

I strongly recommend _against_ approaching the homeowners on Oland 
Road.  These people were overrun by birders and photographers back when 
the Snowy Owl was around, and there are still hard feelings on their 
part.  Please leave them alone and park Rt. 85 (east) end of Oland Rd.

Kathy Calvert
Adamstown, MD

Jeff Shenot wrote:
> Yesterday morning before work I looked for the Longspurs reported at Oland Rd.  At first there were only a couple Horned Larks around, but a large flock came in and ended up feeding on both sides of the road.  They were about half way between New Design Rd and Rt 85.  The field on the south side at this point has a gate access to the south field  and is the only place to pull off the road at this stretch without parking in the landowners field (there is no shoulder), but it is a tricky place to pull off due to the sloped angle of the shoulder.  More importantly, you are blocking the gate at this spot so it is a very poor place to use for parking.  I would discourage folks from using it unless you get permission, and wonder if anyone has asked the homeowner to the immediate west if it would be ok to park by their house instead?
>
> The best option is to park at the corner of Rt 85 and Oland Road and walk along Oland from there.  The north side was much easier scoping in the morning due to the angle of the sun if you are looking at the south field.  The birds were moving so frequently it was very hard to look and know whether you were looking at birds that you had already seen, and I did not try to estimate their number.  I was focused on looking for Longspurs, but I would guess there were at least 100 Horned Larks and there could have been twice that many.
>
> I only saw one Lapland Longspur, but there could have been more.  It was feeding among the larks on the south side and the bird was far from the road but easily viewed via scope.  I was pressed for time to get to work so I left quite happy to have found a Longspur!
>
> Cheers-
> Jeff Shenot
> Croom Md
>
>