Just sat down to post this and opened a field guide. A stink bug was 
crawling inside. I whacked it with a tissue over a drawing of a little 
blue heron. It went to the back porch, where the Carolina Wren awaits a 
chance to even the score. Even house sparrows won't touch one.*
        Before this interruption, I wanted to suggest to ID mavens that Ohio 
has at least three authenticated horned lark subspecies. If you can get 
a good look there are clear distinctions (much clearer than among the 
redpolls we agonize about, for example), but sorting them out has become 
a lost art. Here is what I wrote in my book about records in central 
Ohio (Natl Geo has good illustrations among the popular guides).
   "Three field-distinguishable subspecies have appeared in the county. 
  Davie (1898:316) wrote of locally-nesting E. a. praticola that “Mr. 
James E. Gould found young birds near Blacklick, Franklin Co, July 14, 
1893.  So far, this makes the breeding range of the Prairie Horned Lark 
in Ohio extend from the central portion northward east and west” 
(specimen 2/24/1882 OSUM #1010).  E. a. alpestris has only wintered here 
(specimen 2/25/1928 Univ. Mich. #91576), with high counts of flocks of 
~600 on 2/18/1928 (Walker & Trautman 1936:153) and 1202 for the 
Darbydale CBC of 12/16/1972.  Local specimens of the Arctic-breeding E. 
a. hoyti are OSUM #s 1012 and 3075; this large, pale subspecies has 
occurred here in very small numbers with wintering flocks of the other 
forms; it has not been verified in recent years, but careful scrutinies 
of lark flocks have apparently become unfashionable."
Bill Whan
Columbus
*as I signed off, I saw a junco snatch the stink-bug, appear to choke, 
then after some fussing carry it off.

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