[TN-Bird] Lark Sparrows; Henry & Weakley Co. 5/31/04

5/31/04
Weakley/Henry Co.
Today, while Don Manning and I ran a BBS route just north of McKenzie, we had a 
great day for Lark Sparrows (by west TN standards anyway). I haven't been out 
much in the field this spring, but was starting to wonder about the Lark's 
because the few times I have been through some of their usual haunts, I was 
unsuccessful. Don had a Lark Sparrow back in April, and also a few days ago 
another one in regular locations for these birds near his house in Henry Co.

Today, on the 49th of the 50 stops, at a spot we had a Lark Sparrow 3 years 
ago, we had FOUR adult Lark Sparrows in a large cultivated area of beans on one 
side of the road, and wheat on the other. Typically, we always get these birds 
around corn fields, or so we thought. Evidently, these 4 birds were 2 pairs, as 
2 males were singing on different ends of the field. As is somewhat typical of 
these birds, on the way back out just a few minutes later, none of the four 
could be found. I'm sure that a few minutes of listening would have turned up 
one of the singing birds though. Other than that the BBS was pretty standard.

On the way home, we happened to go through the area that I have had Larks most 
regularly the last couple of years, and where most of my decent photos were 
taken last year. Going through here we also had a Lark Sparrow at two different 
locations, (back in the usual corn field edge habitat) for a total of SIX Lark 
Sparrows on the morning. One of these last two birds was also singing. 
Definitely the most of this species that either of us had seen in a day in TN. 
I'm sure some of the more traditional spots in Middle TN would produce similar, 
if not greater, numbers though.

On another note, unfortunately the Henslow's Sparrow habitat hasn't come back 
yet after being bushhogged late last year.

Good birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
Carroll Co.
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd


PS- If anybody happened to be in this area (doubtful) and wants to know some of 
the Lark Sparrow locations just let me know.
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