Today I took my grandkids sled riding at the Big Hill in Maumee Bay State Park. They enjoyed it. Afterward, I headed West to go home. Just before I got to Maumee Bay's Campground, 2 Longspurs flew in front of my car. The last one was a Chestnut-collared Longspur. I suppose the first one was, too. I was only about 15 feet from them, getting a very good look at both, especially the tail of the last one. He was landing with his tail fanned out. By the time I got stopped, they were gone.
NW Ohio has a lot of longspurs in its fields right now. In the last 3 weeks, I have gone birding in the fields 3 times. The first time I saw 2 large flocks, mostly Lapland Longspurs, but I saw clearly one McCown's & possibly 2 or 3 more. They showed white tails, but I could not get a clear look at the 2 or 3. Area was the junction of Ohio 163 & Ellington/Towbridge? road. Later on the same day, I saw 2 flocks of Longspurs, flying at least 70 feet high, just north of Oak Harbor, on Ohio 163.
Then on Feb. 15, I saw another flock of Longspurs while travelling on Ohio 101. I was only able to ID one & that was a McCown's. I don't really think it was a big flock. The one I ID'd was probably gravelling on the West edge of the road. It was in front of a house & prior to him taking off, perhaps 10 other Longspurs took off, closer to the house. I suspected they might have been feeding them, but couldn't really stop because of traffic. The house was located on OH101, about halfway between the 101/269 junction & the Turnpike. I think it had a porch that went across the entire front of the house & it was close to the road.
V. Lee Grover
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