Crossing the frozen, snow-covered Plains today, I witnessed large, swirling clouds of longspurs; though I could not identify their species as we raced along the Interstate, they were most likely Lapland longspurs.
These songbirds breed on the Arctic tundra and winter primarily across the Great Plains, unfazed by the frigid temperatures and strong winds that they encounter. Scouring shortgrass prairie, fallow fields and crop stubble for seeds and waste grain, they often gather in massive flocks that burst into the air when disturbed.
By March, it is too mild on the Plains for these hardy birds and they begin their long journey back to the Arctic; there they consume countless insects, feeding many to their nestlings. Slow to head south in the fall, they generally arrive on the Great Plains in November.
