Spring Longspurs

Hi All,

Two days ago Nancy Stotz reported 3 Lapland Longspurs along Livermore Rd, Polk County.   I usually don’t chase such as, in my experience here in the Willamette Valley, these are hardly ever refindable.  However, as I was looking for the Northern Shrike which Roy Gerig refound along the Willamette River, who should call but Roy himself saying he found 5 and possibly 7 Longspurs along Livermore Rd.

Jim Kopitzke and Steve Jaggers had just found the shrike and Steve decided to accompany me to refind it.  We exchanged notes on the Sabine’s Gull and Longspur locations, and ended up meeting again at the north end of Livermore where we thought it best to only use one car, so I parked mine and we headed to the area, a mudflat on the east side of the road about 1.2 miles farther along.  As we neared the area, creeping along, I spied one on the left side of the road and told Steve to stop.  The bird was about 45 feet or so from our car.  Soon we realized there were birds even closer, and we watched them and took pics at our leisure for about 20 minutes.  We were not able to see more than 5 birds at that time. 

Finally a car was heard coming up in back of us, so Steve went to turn the engine on, only to find out he had left the lights on and the battery was dead.  So we got out to let her know our plight, and the birds did not flush.  We were parked more in the oncoming lane, and for whatever reason, she thought she had to squeeze by on the left side, and ended up flushing them, which was when we could tell there were more than just those 5 birds, and I figured about a dozen.  The rest of the flock were in the short green grass.  The birds flew around us in quite wide circles and the next pass I counted 13.  After maybe a couple more minutes they made another pass and I counted 15.  By then I got to thinking maybe they did not land because we were too close to their spot, so I suggested to Steve we back up.  By then Steve had the battery charged with some fast charging device, and so we backed up about 50 feet, but after about 5 minutes the birds did not return, so we left.

As we were able to take pics at our leisure, I ended up taking 242 of them!  Oh well, we get carried away now that we don’t have to buy film.  Below are 9 of the best.  The one bird which was closest most of the time was not quite in full breeding plumage.  And of the 5 birds we saw, none were fully in breeding plumage.  One seemed to be more so, and one was probably closer to basic plumage.

When I have found longspurs in the valley in the past, they are almost always solo birds, or sometimes 2-3 birds, so a flock of 15 seems fairly far out of the ordinary.  Plus, I have only ever seen one in breeding plumage once, back on 6/26/96 at Baskett Slough NWR.  Oddly enough, that one was found by Roy the day before. 

This one seems to have molted such that the black face is more distinct.