Horned Larks and Grasshopper Sparrow in Carteret County, NC

["John Fussell" <jfuss@clis.com>]

This morning Jack Fennell and I had at least 150 (!) Horned Larks on a
private farm in Carteret County, NC, near North River.  Most of the
birds were juveniles.  Has anyone had any experience with large
aggregations of this species in the summer?  I assume that nested
locally, and that none of these birds were recently arrivals from
farther west.

In any event, this is a mind-boggling total count for a species I had
never seen in the county until a few months ago.

We also had a juvenile Grasshopper Sparrow.  I assume that it represents
a local nesting record and not a recent arrival from a site further
inland.  There has never been any evidence of nesting by this species in
the county.

John Fussell
Morehead City, NC
jfuss@clis.com


---
[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Cape Lookout Mail Server]