I had a little time this morning so I decided to try out a place that Greg Miller told me about: the "Dundee Grasslands" as they are called. It's a little area east of Dundee with... well grass and pines, ticks (bleh) and... birds! I was actually on the hunt for a Grasshopper Sparrow (which I failed to locate) when I ran across an altogether unfamiliar bird. It was on the ground next to a dirt road within a very large area of low cut grass. My first thought was Meadowlark or Sparrow because of the shape, but through the binoculars I saw a bright white face with a bold black eye mask and bold black collar. It was brown on top and white on the bottom with "normal legs" (I say this because I was surrounded by Killdeer and, though the coloring was similar, the length of the legs made for a clear distinction). I thumbed through my guide but nothing jumped out. I text-messaged a friend and he was stumped... what could it be!?! Not until I got back to a computer and googled "ground birds" did I eventually come across our bird: the Horned Lark. Horned Lark, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
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Photo Credits:
Horned Lark - Linda Tanner
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