On April 16th, 14 birders joined Laurie Voss, ABAS Recording Secretary and field trip leader, for a morning of birding at the “Burn”. Our primary target bird was the Smith’s Longspurs that are attracted to this location due the presence of foxtail, a weedy grass which disperses bristled seeds, that the birds eat. Several longspurs were seen in flight but landed in the tall grasses making it impossible to get good looks. We quickly caravanned to an open field approximately ½ mile down the road where the grasses were much shorter. Immediately we encountered a good number of longspurs that were easily seen by everyone, including one that was leucistic.
We returned to the “Burn” to continue the bird hike. We walked the perimeter then cut across through the swamp area where we did what we could to keep our boots from getting stuck in the mud. In the “swamp” we kicked up 6 Wilson’s Snipes and 60 Pectoral Sandpipers.
In all, we saw 32 species of birds highlighted by the 40+ longspurs, 3 Ring-necked Pheasants, a Vesper Sparrow, Savannah Sparrows, and Swamp Sparrows. Several in the group were able to record “lifers” thanks to Laurie’s excellent leadership.
Photo courtesy of Matthew Krohn.