Date: 10/15/25 9:44 am From: Michael M. Melius via groups.io <pingothenbingo...> Subject: [sd-birds] FOY Longspurs
Chestnut-collared, that is. (CCLO) I really did try to find them in spring migration, searching several times east/southeast of the Black Hills in April.
Yesterday I made a long circular trip in eastern Custer Co, from Buffalo Gap to Folsom and back through Hermosa. I saw a small flock of Horned Larks (HOLA) in a prairie dog town, and a possible flock of longspurs over stubble fields of an irrigated area near the Cheyenne River. Those were too far off to identify.
With the sun going down, I rolled slowly through some flat farmland along Spring Creek Cutoff Road. It's a reliable spot for sparrow migration. A harrier was hunting there, and soon I saw some small birds milling around. I stopped and got out, and immediately heard CCLO calls. They were flying so fast, but I was able to get positive ID's on several, with dark breasts and prominent white on the tails. Also some definite HALO's mixed in.
Just then a doe with two young were walking across the stubble field towards me. I quickly got back in my pickup, so they'd keep coming. Sure enough, they started flushing more larks and longspurs. Better yet, they turned west, longways through the field, stirring up more birds. There were easily over a hundred. When they would alight in the stubble, I searched with a scope, but the only bird heads I could see were meadowlarks. There were over 20 of these, probably roosting in a pasture across the road.
My experience with such mixed flocks is mostly winter ones, Lapland Longspurs and HALO's. As with these CCLO/HALO flocks, it's very difficult to tell them apart when flying. As the birds were finally settling down last evening, a group of three CCLO came by, calling, and flying their bouncy longspur flight, very obvious. Now I wonder: When they fly with HALO's, speeding over the ground, twisting and turning, do they adjust their flight to more closely match that of HALO's?
Most of the calls I heard were CCLO's. After they'd all settled in, I had the pleasure of hearing many of the longspurs making partial calls from the stubble, in all directions.
