Smith's Longspur at Boundary Bay, BC‏ Wayne Weber 9/18/13

Birders,



A SMITH’S LONGSPUR was found by Mike and Sharon Toochin on the afternoon of September 15 on the Boundary Bay dyke, about halfway between 96th Street and 104th Street in Delta, BC. It was seen again by numerous observers on both September 16th and 17th. Good photos were obtained by Raymond Ng on the 16th.



For any of you who were not able to get to see the Smith’s Longspur at Ocean Shores, it might be worth trying for the Boundary Bay bird. This is only the third record of Smith’s Longspur for the Vancouver area.



A word of caution-- the longspur has been spending most of its time with 2 Lapland Longspurs in a recently-harvested potato field, about 300 yards north of the dyke. The bird is hard to find. The field of course is privately owned and off-limits to birders; viewing is from the public dyke. When feeding in the field, the longspur is out of sight most of the time, but people have been able to get satisfactory views with a spotting scope. Every so often, the longspurs fly out of the field (usually after being frightened by a hunting Northern Harrier), fly along the dyke, and on 1 or 2 occasions have landed briefly on the mudflats near the dyke.



I haven’t heard whether the bird was seen today, but it seems likely to stay for a few days. If you need Smith’s Longspur for your life list, it may be worth a try for this bird. However, if you come, expect a long wait and probably a distant scope view of the bird.