This morning I looked out to see Idaho Falls had been dumped on with 3-4″ of snow which had most of my trees with limbs hanging down to the ground from the weight of the snow. Luckily there was not to much damage and I thought it would be a great chance to look for migrating longspurs. Darren had planned on going to American Falls but I told him I wanted to look for Longspurs so I headed out West Broadway and immediately saw Flocks of Horned Larks along the road but could not stop due to traffic. I turned north on 105th West (Croft Rd) and immediately found Gray Partridge, Horned Larks, Meadow Larks and American Pipets. I drove up to my favorite spot at the Intersection of 105th West and 113th North. I turned onto 113th North and drove 1/2 mile but did not see any flocks and thought I would turn around and just go back that way after checking more of 105th West. I turned North on 105th West and drove just past the new drag strip and found a flock and immediately found two plain faced Longspurs that I was pretty sure were McCowen’s. I reached for my camera and Darren Clark called and I told him he better get down here because I was sure I had just found McCowen’s Longspurs. I tried to re-find them but a car drove past and flushed them before I could find them again and get a picture. When they settled down and I found one I got great looks and also found a Lapland Longspur. I was looking through a scope pretty far away and did not want to spook them so I tried to get some far away shots through the scope but every time I got on them they flushed from a car and I had to re-find them again. Just as I re-found them Darren called for directions. I fired off a few shots with the camera and had just enough proof to show Daren I didn’t bring him down from Rexburg for nothing. A big semi came by and flushed them so bad I could not find much of the flock again and naturally that is when Darren arrived. I showed him the picture as I had to leave but I showed him part of the flock and left. He couldn’t find it so he went bask to 113th North. Just past where I had turned around on 113th he found a flock and it had two McCowen’s in it also. He got a few pictures and went back and re-found one on 105th so we know there were at least three McCowen’s in that little area. He also found the Lapland Longspur there. It is not often your hunch pays off but I will now have a plan if we ever have a early October snowstorm again on where to go birding.

Steve Butterworth
Idaho Falls