Howdy, Paul--
        Glad to hear you're on the QT for Smith's longspur. The most recent 
hotspots for this species--and this was a long time ago--were in the 
vicinities of Seeds Rd and Zuber Roads south of Grove City (some 
interesting contrasting habitat along Hiner Rd, too); one could also 
look for gull gatherings nearby, of course. Most Ohio records come in 
April, but as you'll read in the below account some have arrived in 
March. Elsewhere, I edited a whole issue of the Ohio Cardinal wiht 
articles treating this little bird in the region back in 2002, and if 
you're really really interested I could photocopy the 28 salient pages 
for you...
Best of luck,
Bill

Smith’s Longspur   Calcarius pictus.  Unknown to the older chroniclers 
in Ohio, and only in the 1950s recognized as a rare spring migrant in 
the county.  Changes in agricultural practices, and perhaps a loss of 
common knowledge about successfully finding these longspurs, have 
diminished local reports to zero in recent decades.  Maximum 250 in the 
southwestern part of the county (especially Seeds Rd.) 4/15/1956 (AFN 
10(4):338), with other flocks as large as 200 east of Grove City on 
4/20/1965 (AFN 19(4):482, with 11 audio records #7347 at the Borror 
Laboratory on the same date), 7-12 birds on 4/7/1968 (WCB 13:59) and 100 
on 3/6/1971 (WCB 16:39) with 100 Lapland Longspurs.  There have been no 
verified county reports since the ‘70s, although spring flocks continue 
to be found in several western Ohio counties as a result of careful 
searching for these scarce and often well-camouflaged migrants. 
Trautman (1968:310) called it a “regular, very local spring transient in 
central and western Ohio.” There are several November records in Ohio, 
but Franklin County has none from fall, when longspurs would be still 
more difficult to detect.  Most often reported here during April in 
corn-stubble infested with foxtail (Setaria sp.) in large fields; 
elsewhere they have also been found in grasslands associated with 
airports.  Smith’s have appeared regionally as late as 5/9/1956 nearby 
in Pickaway County (WCB 1(2):18), where two flocks were found on 
4/20/1965, the larger of ~300 birds (Trautman MS OSU Archives 6/4/65). 
No winter records are known.  There are no known Franklin County 
specimens, but skins at OSUM come from nearby in Madison and Pickaway 
counties.  Median local arrival 4/1, departure 5/1 (Bent 237(3):1634).

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