FreeLists / birdky / [birdky] RPT: Larks and longspurs

["Palmer-Ball, Brainard (EPPC OOS KNPC)" <Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx>]

As of 2:00 p.m. a Snow Bunting had not been seen again on our family farm in
eastern Jefferson County. The influx of larks, as always, is interesting and
amazing, though. 

I started out with 5 larks. About 9:30 the flock with the bunting came
through and left JUST before I was able to get out some corn for them. The
cattle lot attracts the birds, but if food is not available, they move on as
this group did. Once the corn is in place and they have found it, they tend
to stick around. By about 11:00 there were 50 larks, by noon there were more
than 100, and when I left at 3:00 there were at least 175.  Amy and I took a
walk around the Indian grass fields, and not 10 minutes went by without a
new flock (most small, 10-15 birds)coming in from the north in the clear
blue sky, white bellies and black tails shimmering from the reflection of
the snow.  By 3:00 there were also at least 5 Lapland Longspurs; they have
been increasing slowly, one or two at a time. By late morning, most of the
larks in the flock were "northerns" with bright yellow faces; some of the
males are gorgeous. The pattern of few longspurs and Northern Horned Larks
just coming in suggests that a big movement of buntings and longspurs is not
going to happen with this front, but if the Great Lakes gets a snow before
this one completely disappears, a nice influx might occur.

The Indian grass had about 100 sparrows, mostly American Trees, but at least
15 Savannah and more than a dozen Chippys. The entire flock seemed to take
flight when a "gray ghost" coursed through the area . . . the male harrier
decided on one victim and chased it to the treeline, but didn't make a kill.


At the feeders, 3 Pine Siskins showed up; I haven't seen any there for over
a month . . . and a couple of Fox Sparrows showed up right on cue with the
snow.

bpb, Louisville
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