On Saturday Aug. 2 there was a report of a possible Sprague's Pipit seen
Saturday in Sandusky County.  As I write this, there hasn't been any more
traffic about that bird on Ohio-birds, but over on RareBird.Org there were a
couple of posts from observers who went to the same place and saw potential
candidates for the species on Sunday.

I went to the site today (Monday Aug. 4) and spent almost two hours scoping
the entire edge and surroundings of the pond repeatedly.  It was early
afternoon, but the high overcast made for very good lighting with no harsh
shadows nor obvious heat shimmer.  A lot of shorebirds were present, to make
the search more enjoyable.  There were many swallows foraging low over the
water, and a couple of Eastern Kingbirds perched low and flycatching near
the pond.  On the ground I saw a few dozen each of Eur. Starlings and
Mourning Doves, a couple of Savannah Sparrows, and at least two juvenile
Horned Larks.

I wouldn't presume to tell someone else what bird they saw.  But anyone who
has been to the site, or is planning to go, should be aware that birds
suggesting the appearance of Sprague's Pipits out of range in summer may be
juvenile Horned Larks.  Several years ago I saw a parallel situation in
another state, and even though the observer had managed to photograph his
"pipit," he reacted angrily to my identification:  "I know a - - - - - - -
Horned Lark when I see one!"  But in fact, most birders are not familiar
with juveniles of this species, which look strikingly different from adults
and which have not been illustrated well very often.  The larks remain in
this plumage only a very short time, a few weeks at most, and their
appearance is changing throughout that time as the feathers become worn and
molt begins.  By the time we start to see winter flocks, that plumage has
been replaced and the birds are easily recognized.

 I just glanced at a couple of field guides -- older editions of the Natl
Geographic guide had a really poor picture of a juvenile; the latest edition
has a better picture, but it fails to capture the face pattern and it shows
a darker bird than most of the ones around here.  Sibley usually has
excellent illustrations of juveniles, but most of the juv Horned Larks I've
seen in Ohio have been paler, warmer, buffier, paler around the eye, whiter
on the throat, and less evenly washed on the chest than his illustration.
The juv in the Kaufman guide shows the broad pale eye-ring and supercilium
that make the eye stand out as conspicuously dark in a pale face, but it
shows a darker buffy throat than most of the birds around here and it
doesn't show the back pattern well.  And some guides don't show juveniles at
all.  Compounding the problem is the great amount of variation in plumage in
this species, so that even a perfect illustration of one individual might
not look much like another individual.

Across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia there are almost 100 species of
larks, many of them quite hard to identify, while in the Americas we have
just the Horned Lark (plus introduced populations and stray individuals of
Sky Lark).  Horned Lark is not a typical member of the family -- only one
other lark has a similar pattern to the adult plumage -- but the juvenile
Horned Lark looks superficially very similar to many of the larks in the Old
World.  If you've birded a lot overseas, when you see one of these juveniles
your first reaction might be "uh-oh, it's a lark," followed by, "oh, yeah,
it has to be Horned Lark here."  But if you've birded extensively in North
America, even if you've seen thousands of adult Horned Larks, you can still
be thrown off by the juveniles because they are very different-looking
birds.

I don't want to discourage anyone from going to look -- after all, the
shorebirding is quite good at the site now, with crisply marked juveniles of
several species starting to show up.  But observers should be aware that
Sprague's Pipits have no history of showing up out of range in summer, they
rarely walk around on open ground among corn stubble, and many of their
stated field marks could apply equally well to juvenile Horned Larks, which
are known to be at the site.  So if you do find a Sprague's Pipit there,
please try to get photographs!

And, finally, kudos and thanks to the original observers for getting the
word out about their sighting.  When we see a "possible" rarity, it's
tempting to keep quiet about it until we're absolutely sure, but that might
mean that the bird will get away before others have a chance to look for it.
It takes guts to publicize a tentative rarity, but we all appreciate having
the chance to know about these things promptly.

Kenn Kaufman
Oak Harbor, Ohio

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