Seven participants attended the soggy spring field trip to the Lye Creek Burn on April 6. The trip had to be postponed a day due to heavy rains on the 5th which made the trails very wet. Rubber boots were definitely a necessity. But the conditions favored waterfowl including Wood Ducks, Blue-winged and Green-winged Teals, Mallards, American Coot, Pied-billed Grebe, and Canada Goose.
The Ring-necked Pheasants kept teasing us with their calls but never made a physical appearance. The Eurasian Tree Sparrow also evaded us but we got five other species of sparrow at the Burn and two other species at the Smith’s Longspur sight. The group found 30 species of birds in all at the Burn.
From the Burn we caravanned north several miles in search of the Smith’s Longspur where they had been seen at two locations the week before. On the way to the first location one of the participants spotted two American Golden Plovers in a “floodle”. On further scan there also were also 14 Pectoral Sandpipers hiding in the corn stubbles. No Smith’s were found at the first location so we traveled on to the second spot.
50 yards from the second location, a pair of Short-eared Owls flew across one of the cars, landed in the corn stubbles and disappeared. The second spot was also successful at netting us the desired Smith’s Longspur in several flocks that rattled as they rose from the fields and landed in another location only to disappear. The group also had good looks at Vesper and Savannah Sparrows in this area.
Although the day was overcast with a brisk northeast wind, and the trails were quite waterlogged, the group had a successful day with 37 species in all. Thank you Shari McCollough, for welcoming birders to your beautiful Lye Creek Prairie Burn site.