For me the initial question was settled with the first observer. I'm far
too lazy to scroll back and find his name, give proper attribution, but he
heard the bird call "kiddle". That's a Chestnut-collared Longspur. None of
the other three species makes such a flight call. McCown's , the other one
with lots of white in the tail, makes a scratchy flight call that l at
least could never confute with "kiddle". Many other observers heard this
kiddle as well. "If you didn't hear it you can't count it"(Don
Kroodsma)"Hearing is more real than seeing"(Rich Hoyer) Nowadays we can
often make an adequate recording with our mobile phone, and even get it
converted to a sonagram right there on the spot. A vast array of previously
identified vocalizations are available for comparison online, accessible
with the same mobile phone.
I think it's really cool that so many people got to see so many
species at once. I have spent considerable time on the artificial prairies
of Linn County and typically don't detect so much as a Horned Lark,
probably 90% of the visits produce pipits at best. For novices to this
terrain, it consistently produces raptors in quantity and variety. But as
with Tillamook and Sauvie Island this season, the dickey birds have a
higher rarity index by an order of magnitude.
Despite the current mania for hazelnuts, acreage planted to grass seed in
Oregon went up 3% last year, with the majority of that in tall
fescue(11,000 acres), the perrenial preferred by most of these prairie
birds.lpn
