Hi, For those birders that are interested - earlier this afternoon I walked the grassland southwest of Sleepy Eye where the Smith's Longspur's have been previously reported. I walked counterclockwise around the two fields without finding any and was almost back to my car when I heard their distinctive rattle. I ended up flushing at least 12 of them (it was probably closer to 15-20) and got close looks at two males. Viewing conditions weren't the best as by the time I found them it had started to drizzle pretty hard. Directions on where the birds were today - drive south on 330th Ave. (from where 330th intersects with County Rd. 20) 1/2 mile and park on the field approach (east side of the road) by a wooden sign post with no sign on it. Today the birds were SE of that spot in a line about 150-200 yards from the car. This seems to be a fairly reliable grassland to find this rare migrant (at least this month it has been).
Brian Smith Sleepy Eye ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
