Discovery of a Smith's Longspur on February 23, 2015

First Record of this Species in Virginia

Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport, Augusta County, Virginia

All photos are © Marshall Faintich

It had been cold and snowy for a week, and Walt Childs and I headed west over the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley to look for birds. These conditions were favorable for finding some good winter birds, as birds were highly likely to be foraging along the road shoulders where snow had melted, and around barns where livestock had melted the snow.

Our primary objective was to look for Horned Larks, as rare bird species (for Virginia) such as Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings are sometimes found with the Horned Larks.


Horned Lark, Shenandoah Valley, February 2014


Male and Female Lapland Longspurs, Shenandoah Valley, March 2013

Our last stop of this outing was at the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport. As we drove into the airport, we saw another flock of Horned Larks, and then three Lapland Longspurs. I had never seen more than two Lapland Longspurs in one location.


Three Lapland Longspurs

As we were driving out of the airport, we saw another flock of Horned Larks farther to the west of the first flock, and there were at least five more Lapland Longspurs mixed in with the Horned Larks.


Lapland Longspurs

We also saw a very pale Longspur that we assumed was a female Lapland Longspur. Walt and I looked at the photos in my camera view screen, thought that the female Lapland Longspur and one of the males looked a bit odd, but decided that I should post the photos to my blog page as all Lapland Longspurs, and see if we got any comments that perhaps they were a different species of Longspur.

That evening, I looked at all of the North American Longspur information in my references, but thought that any other Longspur would be highly unlikely, and assumed that the pale Longspur was an extreme variant of a female Lapland Longspur. The next closest possibility was a Smith's Longspur, but its midwest wintering grounds are far from Virginia, and none had ever been recorded in Virginia. I then posted my report to a few list-servers here in Virginia.

Later that evening I received an e-mail, and a second one the next morning, suggesting that the pale Longspur might actually be a Smith's Longspur. The first e-mail was from Dr. Steve Rottenborn, Principal, Senior Wildlife Ecologist with H. T. Harvey & Associates in Los Gatos, California. Steve had grown up in Waynesboro, Virginia, had found Augusta County’s first Lapland Longspurs nearly 30 years ago, and has continued to follow Virginia birding list-servers.

I posted a possible Smith's Longspur message to several Virginia birding list-servers on the morning of February 24, and by the middle of that day, a good number of other birders had gone to the airport and had confirmed that it was indeed, a Smith's Longspur, and the first record of one in Virginia. It is possible that the previous winter storm that had moved from the midwest to the east coast, had pushed the Smith's Longspur here.


Smith's Longspur range map


Smith's Longspur, and the first record of one in Virginia

February 25, 2105

By the morning of February 25, the news of a Smith's Longspur was out, and birders were coming from all of the state and from nearby states to see this bird.

Walt Childs and I decided not to go back to the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport this morning. We suspected that there would be a lot of birders there, and since we had already seen the Smith's Longspur when we discovered it on February 23, we wanted to give other birders some room to view it. So we headed to Swoope, Virginia, but kept the option open to go back to the airport if there weren't much to see in Swoope. After lunch, we went back to the airport.

We met a few birders on the road leading into the parking lot, and learned that two Smith's Longspurs had been seen - the pale one that we had seen two days earlier, and another one that was more buffy in color, and had a larger dark area on its upper bill.

We had no reason to doubt that there might have been two Smith's Longspurs there. On February 23, there were lots of Horned Larks, Lapland Longspurs, and the Smith's Longspur, and it was quite possible that we had not seen all the birds along the entrance road to the parking lot, or elsewhere in the airport area. Had we known while we were there on February 23 that it was a Smith's Longspur, we would have stayed longer and looked for others.

We saw one of the Smith's Longspurs right away, and it was foraging along the road shoulder with a small number of Horned Larks and a Savannah Sparrow.

I photographed the buffy Smith’s Longspur at the end of the road closer to the parking lot, and then saw Walt and other birders looking at a bird near the road entrance, walked up there, and photographed the pale Smith’s Longspur there, and had not seen a bird flying by me, confirming to me at the time, that there were two of them. However, I don’t know of anyone who has reported seeing the two Smith’s Longspurs together at the same time.

I posted a few of the many photos that I took that afternoon, and needed time to look at and process the rest of the photos. One birder thought that the feather patterns on the pale Smith’s Longspur and the buffy Smith’s Longspur were the same, and it was the same bird. The flight photos I posted of the buffy Smith’s Longspur clearly shows the two white outer tail feathers on each side, confirming that it was a Smith's Longspur, and the white shoulder patch indicates a male. According to Beadle and Rising's "Sparrows of the United States and Canada" reference, winter female Smith's Longspurs do not show the white shoulder patch.


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur

After having looked at all of the photos, I am no longer sure if there were two Smith's Longspurs there, or only one, and perhaps lighting, especially reflection off of either snow, gravel, or warm brown grasses, may have resulted in both the “pale” and “buffy” appearance of the same bird. I leave it up to the readers to draw their own conclusions. I have posted a sampling of many of my photos below. All I can tell for sure is that some of the photos of the pale Smith's Longspur also show a white shoulder patch, indicating that both birds, if there are two, are males.

I tried to compare feather patterns of the birds in the photos, but could not draw any definitive conclusions. However, consider the following two photos. The pale Smith's Longspur is on gravel, and the buffy Smith's Longspur is on grass, and the crown patterns look different, but I think that it is the same bird because the dark upper bill area looks to be identical.


Smith's Longspur

Here are the rest of the photos that I processed for posting.


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur


Smith's Longspur

Walt and I submitted a report to the Virginia Avian Records Committee (VARCOM) for official recognition of this bird as a Smith's Longspur, and are confident (as of today, March 1, 2015), that it will be accepted. As of November 2014, there had been 471 avian species recorded in Virginia. Sub-species separated into different species, different species now recognized as a single species, and possible other new species may have changed the total number of Virginia avian species, and we are waiting for final acceptance and learning the Virginia species number for the Smith's Longspur.



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