Missbirders,
This afternoon Jason Hoeksema, Hal Mitchell, Wayne Patterson and I
joined Gene Knight for a rare opportunity to walk the A&D Turf Farm
south of Oxford to see what grassland birds we might turn up. The
afternoon started well as we turned up a LE CONTE'S SPARROW in the
first promising patch of grass, the first of five total for the day. A
couple of BLUE-WINGED TEAL and seven GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE were
notable along the creek-wetland at the back edge of the property. All
across the landscape around pockets of standing water WILSON'S SNIPE
were concealed in the grass. The snipe flushed a dozen or so at a time
from these little pocket wetlands with as many as sixty snipe in the
air at once. But the highlight came in a stand of sparse broom sedge
with fairly thick understory on the margins of the farm where we
turned up a HENSLOW'S SPARROW that flushed to the tree line along the
bank of the creek-wetland where it perched in some brush giving
extended views for everyone in the group.
According to Gene, that's likely a second county record for that
species. Good times, and we're all happy that Gene's patch worked its
magic again (and it always seems to yield better birds when Gene is
present...).
eBird list with photo of HESP: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34963580
Good birding,
JR
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