{"id":12430,"date":"2023-04-23T19:03:22","date_gmt":"2023-04-23T23:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=12430"},"modified":"2023-04-23T19:03:22","modified_gmt":"2023-04-23T23:03:22","slug":"finally-lapland-longspur-in-breeding-plumage-04-23-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=12430","title":{"rendered":"FINALLY! Lapland Longspur in Breeding Plumage, 04\/23\/23"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I first started birding, I remember looking in my bird guide book at Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings in breeding plumage. I didn’t realize at the time that it’s extremely unlikely to see either of those birds in breeding plumage unless you travel to their breeding grounds. But then, a few years back, Rob Stone put it in my head that it was possible to get Lapland Longspurs in the early spring in beautiful plumage. I can remember this beautiful bird<\/a> that I found in early April of 2018 – it was nearly there. But it wasn’t until today that I was finally able to see and capture a LALO in breeding plumage. I was so excited!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~What a bird! Lapland Longspur in the black dirt, 04\/23\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I hit the black dirt this morning, hoping mostly for shorebirds, but also hoping for American Pipits, since I’d seen that they were reported on Saturday. Shorebirds were a bust for me, but I did find a flock of approximately 30 pipits; I enjoyed watching and photographing them in the morning rain. Then I located a decent sized flock of Horned Larks in flight. I tracked them with my bins and saw where they put down; I got my scope on them and one of the first birds I saw was a beautiful LALO in breeding plumage. The birds were distant, and I was unable to get photos. I knew I wasn’t going anywhere, so I waited them out and finally got my opportunity. There were at least (3) longspurs in the flock; I have photos of 3 distinct plumages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Another favorite, American Pipit sitting on onions in the black dirt, 04\/23\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~LALO in the black dirt, 04\/23\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday I took a 6 mile hike at Black Rock Forest. I was just in the mood to take a hike and get my legs moving, but it ended up being surprisingly birdy. I added 10 birds to my OC year list; highlights included Brown Creeper and Red-breasted Nuthatch. Afterwards, I ran for the WILSON’S PHALAROPE that Jeanne Cimorelli reported at the Camel Farm on Friday evening. That’s a really great find and an excellent bird for the county, however I didn’t get too excited about it because between the great distance and the heat shimmer, my looks were pretty terrible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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~Black-crowned Night-Heron at Quassaic Creek in Newburgh, 04\/22\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~I love these rainy shots. Red-winged Blackbird in the black dirt o4\/23\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~Backyard bee on our crabapple tree, 04\/21\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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~Another Lapland Longspur in the black dirt, 04\/23\/23.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I first started birding, I remember looking in my bird guide book at Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings in breeding plumage. I didn’t realize at the time that it’s extremely unlikely to see either of those birds in breeding plumage unless you travel to their breeding grounds. But then, a few years back, Rob … Continue reading “FINALLY! Lapland Longspur in Breeding Plumage, 04\/23\/23”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos","category-rarities"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-3eu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12430"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12441,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12430\/revisions\/12441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}