On Tue, 23 Jul 1996 steppie at wolfenet.com wrote:
> No Sage or Lartk Sparrows were noted at this wet area; these species were
> still in their usual breeding habitats which are the lower, drier
> communities of the shrub-steppe zone.

Hi Tweets, let's talk about this for a second. Lark Sparrow records from
the BBA occur throughout the Columbia Basin, Palouse, and Okanogan Valley.
My (albeit limited) experience with them in Washington is only in stands
of Big Sage during the breeding season. Other reports and printed
material also bear this out, yet they are surely breeding in nonforested
habitats throughout eastern Washington. So what do people perceive as
Lark Sparrow's *preferred* breeding habitat? Three months of fieldwork at
Sagebrush Flats in 1992 yielded only one sighting and no nests found, yet
we found numerous nests of the other sagebrush species.

-------------
Michael R. Smith
Univ. of Washington, Seattle
whimbrel at u.washington.edu
http://salmo.cqs.washington.edu/~wagap/mike/mike.html