Greetings all - I have very little information on the reported Smith's Longspurs (gleaned from bird yesterday). Yesterday, Randy Kreager saw two possible Smith's Longspurs near Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area. This is an extremely rare bird in Ohio, with few winter records and more spring records. It is a review species and must be documented in extreme detail as there are many similar species (American Pipit can look quite similar, and buffy Laplands can as well). Hopefully a detailed report will follow. Randy reports "they were in a HUGE flock: predominately buntings, quite a few larks, and many Lapland Longspurs." Randy's directions to location: "When you turn into Metzger Marsh road, off of Route 2, take the immediate left, cross the bridge, and proceed back to the end of the road. The sign says Dead End - but it is not. When you go as far north as you can, you come to a "T" (the left part of the T goes out to a side road). It was at that "T" that I sat for well over an hour, watching this flock. The longer I sat, the closer they came. I got really good looks with my scope!" Jen [log in to unmask] Cleveland, Ohio 330-701-6452 Bird Illustrator / www.jenbrumfield.com Birding Tour Guide (Ohio), Local Patch Birding / www.jenbrumfield.com Birding Tour Guide (worldwide), Tropical Birding / www.tropicalbirding.com Naturalist/Artist, Cleveland Metroparks / www.clemetparks.com LEICA Birding Optics Prostaff / http://en.leica-camera.com/sport_optics/NorthNW Lake Erie blog / www.northnw.wordpress.com ______________________________________________________________________ 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]