There's Gold in That Prairie!

My longspur search started last fall when my son indicated that he would be in Missouri for the holidays. There were a few birds left in Missouri that would be lifers for him, and it would be nice to find them while he was in Missouri.
When he was a young birder, we spent most of our Missouri birding time in the forests and edge areas of the Ozarks, rarely venturing out to the prairies just an hour or two west of our home. That is precisely the reason that some of the gaps in his Missouri list exist.In December, while birders gathered to begin the Taney County Christmas Bird Count, Jeff Nichols of the Big Bluestem Audubon Society in Iowa mentioned that he had been to Golden Prairie and had spotted longspurs in a burned off section of the grasslands. GOAS birder Charley suggested that we bird the agricultural fields around Lockwood to find the birds. For whatever reason, I thought the birds would be a slam dunk, and when my son arrived for the holidays, we searched around Lockwood instead of bee-lining to Golden Prairie. That was a mistake.
I continued to keep my ears and eyes open, thinking that the small birds were more ubiquitous than I eventually figured out. I birded my home area destination of Palmetto several times, drove to Riverlands for gulls, but hoped to find them there. One month of weekend searches passed, and still no longspurs.Finally, I talked my friend Marvin into heading west to the original December longspur site at Golden Prairie. He took all of the quality bird pictures on this post. We had a difficult time locating the prairie as no signs exist on the main roads south and west of Golden City. After finding large numbers of various sparrows, Harris's, White-crowned, Fox, Field, Song, and Swamp, we passed a microwave tower and arrived at Golden Prairie. We circled the entire tract of land, observing many more sparrows, Northern Harriers, Red-tailed Hawks, Cedar Waxwings, American Robins, and Horned Larks, but no longspurs.We returned to the micr0wave tower road where I caught a glimpse of a small bird with white outer tail feathers flying out of the gravel and into the former soybean field across the road from the tower. Although it briefly perched on a branch of a weed at the edge of the field, it disappeared into the barren field. We slowly edged down the road when I caught a glimpse of movement 100 yards away. I quickly set the scope up and "bingo", Lapland Longspurs. Their various plumage patterns gave their identity away immediately. Some of the males were coming into breeding plumage, while others were more well-camouflaged individuals.
Restlessly, the entire flock took to the air with rattly calls and chaotic patterns, eventually moving much further out into the field. I circled them to try to flush them back toward the road. For a brief moment, I was successful. I hope that Marvin got a picture or two. My photo attempts were very marginal.. Since I knew where to look, I could see the chestnut nape of one of the birds in the picture, but that's about it. Can you see it? Ok, I know, but it's there, I promise.
The gold was in the bag. I got my 384th North American lifer, the Lapland Longspur.

We birded the backroads back to Springfield, picking up 3 Loggerhead Shrikes for the day, a single American Wigeon among Gadwalls, and many more American Kestrels and Red-tailed Hawks. Forty one species in all, plus the satisfaction that comes with finding another life bird.

The Conservative Cost of Corn

I stood at the counter of my local MFA feed store to purchase 25 pounds of black oil sunflower seeds. Usually the most reasonable place in town to purchase my bird seed, I was surprised to see the register display $11.67, especially since the last time I purchased seed, the price was $7.95 + tax per 25 pound bag. I know that within the last year that I have paid $9.95 for a 50 pound bag of sunflower seeds there. Without a prompt from me, a young lady employed by the store asked, “Why has that price gone up so much lately?” My comeback was quick. “Must be making ethanol with them.” “That’s right”, said the worker at the cash register. “Corn prices are way up, too,“ he continued, “They say everyone with any available land will be growing corn next year. That will bring the price down again.” (Editor's note: I have determined since that it's not that farmers are making ethanol from sunflowers, but that they are taking land out of sunflower production to grow the higher profit crop, corn. So, next year both the price of sunflower seeds and corn will be even higher)

After I lifted the bag to my shoulder, I felt a heavy burden, but it wasn’t the sunflower seeds. How in the world did this happen? Didn’t anyone in government read the results of numerous studies stating that the production of ethanol uses more energy than the resulting fuel delivers? That alone should have been enough to stop any thoughts of government subsidies and promotion of this destructive technology. Instead, Republicans and Democrats alike jumped on the ethanol bandwagon, further weakening an already addicted fossil fuel nation with an incredibly ridiculous government energy program that pays corporations to establish ethanol plants and gives no thought or credibility to energy conservation measures and renewable energy sources.

As milk approaches $5.00 per gallon and food prices continue to rise, people will begin to realize that they again have been fleeced by agribusiness, energy corporations, and the U.S. government.
As their miles per gallon of fuel drop as a result of ethanol in the tank, people will begin to realize the cost of ethanol in reduced fuel efficiency.

But we still haven’t uncovered the true cost of ethanol production. To take essential food products and convert them to fuel production for use by citizens of an addicted fossil fuel nation must go against what most of us believe about feeding the hungry. It simply shows no regard for the future of this nation or world. Perhaps that’s the true cost.

But, I don’t think so. As a conservationist, I believe that perhaps the most deleterious aspect of the whole ethanol travesty is the fact that land placed in corn, soybean, and sunflower production cannot support sustainable grasses. This results in a downward spiral of grassland species of all kinds and overall soil fertility. Where Conservation Reserve Programs manage critical habitat responsibly to sustain grasslands, prairie playas, and grassland wildlife populations, ethanol production programs totally eliminate the possibility of the recovery of prairies and grassland species inhabiting them. In the not too distant future, the end result of plowed fields replacing fertile grasslands, coupled with the droughts that will be induced by rising global temperatures, just may be the greatest cost of all attributed to ethanol production…the desertification of the most fertile ecosystem on Earth, the North American plains.

I am both amazed and haunted whenever I spot a Loggerhead Shrike, a Henslow’s Sparrow, or an Upland Sandpiper.