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 ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]