I ritually write a reminder like this each April, and this year it's
nice some birds have actually been reported already!
        Finding Smith's here in April is almost entirely a matter of finding
prime stopover habitat. This habitat is no longer common, so hats off to
the Holmes/Tuscarawas group for persistently searching for some. I
suspect there were some farmers among them, which must have been a great
help.
        Despite the range maps, Smith's move north as far east as western Ohio;
they are regular in eastern Illinois and Indiana. Their Ohio migration
has slowed to a trickle with the use of agricultural chemicals that
suppress their favorite plant: foxtail, a weed that often shows up in
cornfields and persists in matted form till spring plowing; this time of
year it is sprawling straw-colored leaves, with few remaining
seed-heads. They also show up in grass/winter rice fields, but often are
hard to see there unless you can get a vantage point parallel to the
rows. They have even been seen in tomato fields.
        Any quite large fairly flat field in the western half of the state with
foxtail is well worth studying this time of year. There no longer are
many of them, but if nothing else this concentrates the birds. Franklin
County has a record of as many as 100 birds (3/6/71), but our county's
surviving farmers don't tolerate foxtail these days. Seek out less
industrial-scale farms (yes, I know I also advise seeking out quite
large fields), organic or old-fashioned farms, the farther west the
better. I am sure this is how the current location was found. There are
probably quite a few out there--and their numbers will be increasing
since it'll be weeks before the breeding grounds are free of snow and
have food, so birders in other counties along the Indiana line should
resign themselves to a day of sorting through vesper sparrows and horned
larks to find Smith's.
        The Smith's passing through Ohio are mostly heading toward the south
shore of Hudson Bay (see some of Bob Royse's photos of males from this
area at http://www.roysephotos.com/SmithsLongspur.html ). They can stay
for three weeks in a staging area at our latitude, and the handful of
records to our immediate north (Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario) suggests
they make few--though long--stops along the way, those after our
latitude well beyond human habitations. They can arrive here as soon as
early March, and have stayed into May.
        If you find this habitat along a quiet road, just park and look
carefully into the field. They can be quite close, but well camouflaged;
  getting out and slamming doors will move them farther out. Look for
the apricot-colored underparts of the males, and the narrow white bars
on the upperwing coverts. They may be in the same field with Laplands,
but seldom associate closely. The "watch-winding" calls are similar, but
discriminable with practice.
        Enough said. There is a wealth of further detail in the Spring 2002
issue of the Ohio Cardinal, with five articles about this species.
And good luck,
Bill Whan
Columbus






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