Folks,
There was a fallout of sparrows / longspurs at Cherry Creek today. Loch, I and others found over 34+ McCown's Longspurs in various stages of plumage, a few Chestnut Collared Longspurs along with hundreds of Vesper Sparrows and a few Lark, Brewer's, Chipping and Savannah's mixed in. One of the longspurs stood out, very buffy with a pale eyering, faint dark streaking and a median crown stripe. We photographed the bird that shows some similarity to Smith's Longspur 1st year / non-breeding plumage. I am not jazzed about the bill in the photographed bird (for Smith's) and we did see some semi-buffy McCown's longspurs with clearly McCown's Longspur tails but the photographed bird looks buffy than any of those. Those birds also showed gray tones. Others currently at Cherry Creek are seeing 2 buffy longspurs with tail patterns that resemble Smith's. I have very little experience with Smith's Longspur so any comments / insight is appreciated. Also there were 5 Common Terns and I just got word there are 2 Purple Martins there now near the west end.
Glenn Walbek
Castle Rock, CO
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