Troy Shively's out atlasing, and just called to report finding a very
vocal upland sandpiper. It's in a bean field on the south side of Van
Ness Rd, .6 mi from Rte 4, old DeLorme 57 D-4 (very near corner of
Madison/Union/Champaign counties and in Champaign, maybe 25 mi west of
Columbus). There are no fence posts here for perching, but he saw the
bird in flight. Sounds like it's unmated; times are tough for this species.
        For those properly equipped, the lat/long is N40.10228, W083.50446.
This is a priority block, so if you visit please keep track of birds and
breeding status and report to OBBAII. Troy heard northern bobwhites in
this area, another vanishing grassland species. This probably is
ancestral prairie: the Bigelow Prairie Preserve is about 4 mi to the
east, and always worth a visit; it's on the DeLorme map.
        Note to newbies: the reason you're hearing all these reports of upland
SP is not because they're common. They are rare and getting rarer. One
of the reasons they're seen so often at airports is managers keep the
grass at about the right height for them: mowing it too short just
attracts starlings and Canada geese, and letting it get too long might
attract evildoers like the notorious Laura Keene :).
Bill Whan
Columbus

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