Joann Merritt's Essays

Never Say Never
April, 1995

Children and birds are alike, if you say that they never _______ (fill in your own blank) then they will do that very thing. Take longspurs, for instance - they never stop long enough for anyone to get a good look at them, but they do stop when they feed by the edge of the pavement. The trick is to wait for an ice or snow storm that covers the pastures, then just as the roadsides begin to thaw the longspurs will come to feed there. By driving slowly and staying in your car you can approach near enough to easily see their field marks. Timing is everything. If you go before the roadsides thaw, or if you delay until the ice or snow in the pastures has melted you will never - oops, did I say never? - see them.

One year we observed all three species of longspurs in that manner. These Chestnut-collared, McCown’s and Lapland Longspurs were also seen and confirmed by Rose Marie, which gives more clout to my observations. Another year when the longspurs remained into April they began changing into their spring plumage and would perch for several minutes at a time in the tips of small shrubs where they could be seen with scope or binoculars.

When Don, Gene and I were at Hortons we actually walked close enough to longspurs feeding in the sparse grass that they could be seen even without binoculars. Surely MIDNATS “never” had a better view than this. I have always been so intent on seeing other field marks that I forget to look at their feet for long spurs.

I read an interesting story about the McCown’s Longspurs in a Reader’s Digest book. As Frances wrote in the June 1993 Phalarope the military played a big role in studying the natural history of areas where they were exploring, mapping new routes or hold the fort. In June 1805 Lewis & Clark were in what is now Montana when Captain Lewis found and described a bird which is probably the McCown’s Longspur but he didn’t collect a specimen. In addition to describing the birds plumage he wrote “the male rises into the air about 60 feet and supporting itself in the air with a brisk motion of the wings sings very sweetly before making its descent.” So what might have been Lewis’s Longspur, or even Merriwether’s Longspur, became McCown’s Longspur when Captain John Porter McCown fired into a flock of horned larks on a Texas prairie accidentally collecting a small bird with white in its tail and no name.

I’m going to keep watching longspurs in the CEED area, maybe these little bungee jumpers will linger until they attain spring plumage. Perhaps they will even sing and display for us as they did for Captain Lewis. There’s always a chance, never say never!