Pierce First Lapland Longspur

Today Kay and I headed back to Gog-li-hi-ti to look for the Lapland Longspurs seen yesterday by Michael Charest. We got there about 8:30 and started to walk back and forth in the mowed central meadow hoping to see or more likely flush the longspurs. After several transects walked, I was starting to be discouraged, when on the next to the last area, getting closer to the river, I flushed three birds from the grass which called the classic LALO rattle call, and got good looks at the face pattern, unmarked underparts, and face pattern as they flew overhead, made several large circles of the whole area, calling often, before they settled back down just about 50 yards back where we had previously walked. We slowly crept up to where they landed, and Kay first saw one about 10 feet from her. I tried to get in position to see it but it flushed, calling, and set down about 30 feet away in clear sight. Nice views, no photos as i didn’t bring the camera today, but we watched two birds sneak around the grass for a half hour or so. Later as we walked the loop 18 LALO’s took flight, circled a bit, flew across the river before at least 2 returned to the meadow. It is remarkable that we must have walked right by that many without flushing them earlier. Anyway Pierce first for both of us.