ML348755351

Age and sex

Adult Male - 1

Sounds

Flight song

Playback

Playback not used

Media notes

Bird can be heard at ~4-7s, 13-16s, and 20-23s

Observation details

**Extremely rare. First found on June 15. Singing/displaying starting around 540. Sang every 10 seconds or so. A few visuals by Glenn Coady and I but too high to locate with camera. Audio recording made. from OBRC report: Original finder's name and address if known [Peter Hogenbirk and Geoff Carpentier] Other observers' names and addresses [Ethan A. Quinton and Glenn Coady at the time of my sighting] Report Details -------------- Species [Sprague's Pipit] Number [1] Age [unknown] Sex [male] Date you saw it [06/18/2021] Time of day seen [sunrise] Duration of observation [0540-0615] First and last dates [] Exact location seen [South side of Gouliquer Rd, 720 m east of Hwy 619, about 7.25 km north of the town of Pinewood, Rainy River District.] GPS [48.78061, -94.28572] Habitat [Short grass pasture] Weather conditions [Mostly clear, cool (~14 C), moderate west wind.] Kind of lighting on bird [Bird was sidelit with fairly strong early morning sun.] Observer's distance from bird [Estimated to be between 50 and 150 m, plus the height of the bird (~100 m?)] Optics used [Leica Trinovid 10 x 42 binoculars. ] Photographs taken? [no] Video taken? [no] Illustration made? [no] Date this report written [10/05/2021] General Observations -------------------- 1) Circumstances of the observation [Geoff Carpentier posted to Ontario Birds Discord Server on June 15 that he and Peter Hogenbirk had found a Sprague's Pipit displaying at the location. Barb Charlton also shared the information to NWO Birds Listserve and I shared that to Ontbirds (https://ontbirds.ca/empathy/thread/JIQ4NHQUJLRNKOFJ2I5COGXF752LNMPC). Geoff and Peter had the bird again the next morning (16 June) but despite them looking and Glenn Coady looking on 17 June it was not seen or heard. At the time, I was conducting aerial cormorant surveys across the Great Lakes and some other major colony lakes, scheduled to be surveying Rainy and Lake of the Woods later in that week. I arrived in Fort Frances on the evening of 17 June and had a few hours first thing the next morning to do some surveys and birding before the plane left for more cormorant surveys. Ethan A. Quinton was with me and we arrived before sunrise at 5:08 am. Shortly after, Glenn Coady also arrived and we waited around the area, hopes dwindling, until the bird started singing/displaying at 5:40. It sang/displayed continuously until Ethan and I had to leave, at 6:10, but we were still able to hear it on a point count a few hundred metres east of the location - a testament to how well the song carries in open country. We mostly just heard the song, but were able to locate it in the air a few times, but were never able to locate it with cameras given the clear blue sky.] 2) Description [Visually, it was a distinctive flight pattern and silhouette (too far to make out much in the way of plumage characteristics, other than it having a pale underside). It seemed to float in place, up quite high, flapping, then gliding. The most striking feature of the silhouette were its quite broad wings; the way it held its wings in glide really accentuated this, making the tertials look very long and reaching towards the base of the tail. Besides the distinctive silhouette/flight pattern, the identification was largely based on the song. It is quite a unique song, especially when given from up in the air! It's hard to describe but it was a long downward spiral of relatively high pitched notes. The best audio recordings I was able to obtain are in my eBird checklist (https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S90383715) - will send separately.] 3) How were similar species eliminated? [The only other birds that sing for such a prolonged period of time that might be confused with in the air really is Horned Lark - the song was quite different, with a very distinctive "spiraling" quality, as opposed to the steadier "tinkling" of Horned Lark.] 4) Experience with claimed species [No real life field experience.] 5) Field guides/references consulted [I listed to recordings from Macaulay Library, Cornell's All About Birds and Xeno Canot before an after] 6) Any additional commentary/analysis [Worth noting that this was an exceptional drought year in the midwest. The number of Dickcissels in the Rainy River area was astounding (we had 5 singing males at the Fort Frances airport within minutes of arriving) and we found a Lark Bunting literally on the same road as this later in the morning!] Description made from field notes. Identification confident [yes]

Technical information

Recorder

Samsung Galaxy A5 2017

Microphone

Edutige EIM-001

Accessories

Original file size

2.07 MB