Around 1:15 this afternoon I observed a small flock of Smith's Longspurs fly into the northeast corner of the buffalo pen at Blue Mounds State Park. This was about 300 yards south of the beach parking lot along the hiking trail adjacent to the buffalo fence. I was able to hear the birds giving their diagnostic rattle calls in flight, which have been described by others as "slower and lower" or "more cowbird-like" compared to the rattles of Lapland Longspurs. Also, I have yet to hear a Smith's give a "dew" call, which Laplands often (but not always) give in flight.
Querying the MOU database this is allegedly a first county record, although this is as much an artifact of little observer coverage during the species' short migration window in the fall in western MN (around the third and fourth week of October) as anything else. The habitat looks great for Smith's in several locations throughout the park right now, characterized by short grasses (including large areas grazed by the buffalo) interspersed with flat quartzite outcrops. For comparison, The Nature Conservancy's Red Rock Prairie is located in Cottonwood County some 75 miles northeast of Blue Mounds as the longspur flies, and that location has nearly identical habitat and has been a consistent spot for Smith's around this time for many years now. Bob Dunlap bobthebirdman.com ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html