Re: McCown's Longspur in Fish Lake Valley

Observers: River Gates
Email: rgates@prbo.org
Remote Name: 209.221.222.4
Date: 07/26/2004
Time: 05:32 PM -0400

Sighting

Been doing a little bit of research on the bird we saw. I found in the American Bird Conservancy's All the Birds of North America field guide, that longspurs commonly fly up and return to same place, as we observed. And can be found great distances from their breeding and winter ranges because they are strong flyers. Also, after consulting Rising's Sparrow book I was able to determine that we saw a 1st winter female as opposed to a juvenile due to the lack of streaking on the breast. Juveniles would have a noticeably steaked breast! (even in headlights!)