Saturday, January 17, 2009

Snow Buntings and Lapland Longspurs






I rode my bike today out near the airport to see a flock of Snow Buntings. I found a large flock, where it had been reported, along 500N, just west of 700W. It was a large flock in a no-till corn field. They had a remarkable knack for blending into the cornhusks and snow (last photo). Then I found another flock at the corner of 500N & 500W (top two photos). This flock had Horned Larks and some Lapland Longspurs mixed in (middle photo). This is the first time that I had seen this lovely birds near home. It would be great to see them in breeding plumage sometime.

2 comments:

Kelly said...

Hey Ben, Happy birthday! Also, I really like these bird photos. You did a good job of showing how well they blend in while on the ground. Great birds to have so close to where you live!

Scott Namestnik said...

I LOVE Snow Buntings! The contrasting black and white on their wings when they fly is so beautiful. I think I mentioned on our blog a while back that we were lucky enough to lure Snow Buntings into our yard (along our driveway) earlier this winter with cracked corn and sriped sunflower seed... yard bird #99.

Looks like you had some Horned Larks in a couple of those photos, too.