Tweeters,

I happened to be in Portland yesterday, which gave me a chance to look for
the McCown's Longspur on the north side of town. I was able to find it,
and the flock of 60-80 Horned Larks that it associates with, after about
20 minutes of searching, then spent 30-40 minutes viewing it with my scope
at distances of 20-40 yards. It's apparently an immature male, as
indicated by a number of rather subtle characteristics (see OBOL from last
week for several descriptions), and I was able to see pretty much
everything noted in the field guides, including the primary projection.
But I never could confirm the tail pattern. The birds are pretty obliging
to approaching humans, but I'd recommend using a scope to keep the
disturbance down.

The bird hasn't gotten much attention on Tweeters yet, so I thought I'd
repeat the directions to the site, which is easy to find. Cross the
Columbia River on I-5 and take the Marine Drive West exit (second exit
into Oregon, I believe). Follow Marine Drive West (the entire route
passes through a new industrial park) for about four miles. The road then
bends southward. Continue for about 1 more mile until the road climbs a
small gentle hill. Half way up the hill, pull off on the side road to the
left. Park at the concrete blocks and walk into the field, which has a
long strip of low black erosion fence around the perimeter. The longspur
and larks seemed to be prefer the areas of sparse grass and sand. I found
them straight out from the parking site.

This would a good bird to chase for those of you looking for something to
do this three-day weekend. Beware though that an OBOL posting from
yesterday (which I didn't read until just now) indicates that the site may
be off limits to trespassers. However, I didn't see any indication of
this in the form of signs or security people.

Gary Wiles
Tumwater, WA
wilesharkey at yahoo.com



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