Many have weighed in on the Sandusky Co bird reported as a Sprague's pipit without having seen it. Lest we all get carried away, let's remember we have careful first-hand reports, and a records committee to evaluate them. Bill Heck and Paul Gardner and I visited the site twice the following day looking without success, and didn't see anyone else. The rarebird site is down again, but I do recall the Cullens have visited the spot. I did my best with hastily-prepared notes from a phone conversation to pass along reported details, but of course they are hardly a substitute for a complete report, and really shouldn't be picked apart. The reporters' commendable intention was to get other observers to the site to make their own observations, and perhaps to gather further documentation such as a photo. What was described to me did not sound like a young horned lark, but as I say it was necessarily a hurried affair. Subscribers to Birding magazine can look at an August 1997 article by Paul Lehman (pp 333-4) for a good photo of a juvenal horned lark and a discussion of Sprague's pipit as a look-alike. There are plenty of photos of both on the Web, too, if you prefer them to field guide art. For the latter, there's a good one in Mullarney et al.'s Birds of Europe on p. 239. If you don't know both species well, judge for yourself how confusible they are. Another Sprague's pipit record comes from Cleveland 31 Oct 1974 (Peterjohn 2001). A third was published in the Wheaton Club Bulletin as seen by Irv Kassoy 2/6/72 in Ross Co. I had a look through eastern records, where it has been accepted as far out as Massachusetts. In our region, I looked for accepted records April-Oct, and found the following east of South Dakota (MN, MI, OH, TN, ON, IL, KY): 11 in April, 17 in May, 11 in June, 9 in July, 5 in August, 6 in September, and 22 in October. So October has indeed been the most productive, though hardly the only, month during this period with Sprague's records. Anyway, if you want to actually check this report out, it seems late afternoon offers the best light at this site. Best of luck, Bill Whan Columbus ______________________________________________________________________ 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]