This morning I headed up to Over Rd just over the hill from me outside of Curllsville, where on Saturday Mike Weible had reported a quite unusual find for this time of year, a vesper sparrow. I wasn't very hopeful that it would still be around, and was feeling guilty I hadn't gotten up there sooner. I drove up the gravel road and crested the hilltop, pulled over to the side, and there right in front of me off the edge of the road was a sparrow feeding... a vesper sparrow ! This is a hilltop field with crop fields on both sides, recently cut corn on one side and soybean on the other. It sits right across from Rankin Rd where I regularly see the short-eared owls in winter. I almost couldn't believe my eyes, but got decent views before it flew off to a little weedy hillock at the field edge and I got the scope on it. I can't remember the last time I saw a vesper in the county in any season, so quite surprising to find it lingering here. It's feeding on grain scraps and grass seeds I assume, and fed in the field, on corn and in the road while I was there. There's still several inches of snow on the ground but it seems to be hanging right here for now. It may help that the field was just recently cut and so I imagine there's a lot of grain scrap still laying around. I was up early as usual a couple weeks ago and couldn't figure what the bright lights and noise were on the hilltop across the valley, but it was the owner deciding to cut the corn and soybean crop at 5am in 12 degrees in late December. It doesn't make sense to me but I'm not a farmer. I know crops were still standing on the 20th when I checked this spot for the CBC. I hope the bird sticks around !
Also at this same spot were four snow buntings that took off when I arrived, and just down the road was a male harrier hunting over the fields. I checked for the snipe that Mike had found on Champion Rd but came up empty. Still a good morning for early January, and thanks to Mike for finding this hardy little winter visitor,
