Yesterday (10/11) after a visit to UNL for an engineering meeting, my father and I went to the Audubon Spring Creek Prairie south of Denton, NE in Lancaster county. We were hoping to find migrant Sprague's Pipits there. Sprague's Pipit are annual but rare migrants in Nebraska, and the Spring Creek Prairie is one of few places in the state where they are consistently found.
After walking for about 1.0 mile, we decided to walk through the area of the prairie where cattle are allowed to graze, thus making the grass much shorter and much better for Sprague's Pipits. We walked through the grazed area for about 0.5 mile. Needing to leave, my dad started to walk back to the building while I went to investigate 2 sparrow-like birds I had flushed into some taller grass. I was able to flush one back towards the grazed area but I could not refind it. While walking trying to flush it, I flush another small bird. It was lanky and it had a long tail with large amounts of white on the outer feathers. I put my binoculars on it as it flew away. I was able to seen its long bill, large eyes, and plain face. It was a Sprague's Pipit!
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| Sprague's Pipit in flight. |
I then was able to take several pictures of it in flight. I yelled to my dad in order to let him see the bird. While he was walking up the ridge toward me, he flushed 2 sparrow-like birds. I heard one give a call I have never heard before, and I saw that they are white on their outer tail feathers. We both began to slowly walk to the area where they had landed. Once we had got within 30 feet, we were able to see they were Longspurs. We observed them for 10-15 minutes and we got within about 10 feet of them. One was clearly a Smith's Longspur! The Smith's Longspur is a casual migrant in Nebraska, meaning that it is reported 4-7 out of every 10 years. This was only the 4th individual seen in Nebraska this year. In 2013, there was an "invasion" of Smith's Longspurs with several large flocks at 2 prairies in southern Nebraska. The field marks that identified it as a Smith's were its long primary extension, overall warm buffy color, distinct face pattern, and thinnish bill. The other Longspur that accompanied it is a different story. It foraged close by during our observation of them. It differed from the Smith's by its paler body color (a light tannish-brown), less distinct face pattern, and shorter primary extension. It could be just a pale Smith's Longspur or maybe even a Chestnut-collared Longspur, a rare migrant in eastern Nebraska but common summer resident in western Nebraska. I am still trying to identify it, and I will see what other Nebraska birders think too.
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| Smith's Longspur |
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| Smith's Longspur |
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| Smith's Longspur |
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| Longspur sp. |
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| Longspur sp. |
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| Longspur sp. |
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| Smith's Longspur (L) and Longspur sp. (R) |
After we finished watching the Longspurs, my dad and I walked to the top of the ridge to look for the Sprague's Pipit. We soon flushed the Sprague's Pipit, giving us both good looks of it in flight and on the ground.
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| Sprague's Pipit |
Also, present near the nature center were several White-crowned Sparrows and Harris's Sparrows.
Both the Sprague's Pipit and Smith's Longspur were life birds for me. These two put my Nebraska life list up to 320!
