Re: Lapland Lonspurs, Snow Buntings, in Frederick Co. MD.
William Leigh (tern@visuallink.com)
Sun, 17 Jan 1999 17:12:55 -0800
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