I certainly did not expect to see a life bird in Hadley today but that is indeed what happened. After cleaning up after our first snowstorm of the season that dropped around 4-5 inches of snow I got a call from Scott in the early afternoon. I missed the call but when I listened to the message and heard he had a probable Smith's Longspur in Hadley I was out the door heading that way. I made a call to him on the way and the bird sounded like it was indeed a Smith's Longspur. I arrived to find several other birders present along a somewhat busy stretch of road in the Honey Pot section of Hadley. The bird showed back up right after I arrived and returned to its favored spot right along the edge of the road where it fed in small areas where the snow had melted. It would occasionally be flushed up by passing cars but usually it stayed put, even with traffic passing by within a foot of the bird. When it did flush it would fly off giving a rattle call and occasionally join up briefly with the large flocks of Horned Larks present. It would always return to the same small area along the road within a few minutes (or at least it did while I was there viewing it). At one point a Red tailed Hawk swooped in and almost nailed the bird (odd as the Red tailed Hawks seldom seem to try for the numerous Horned Larks, Snow Buntings and occasional Lapland Longspurs that overwinter in the area). How long will the bird stay? Who knows but prior state records of the species have been seen over multiple days so hopefully it continues. However with its behavior hanging on the edge of a busy road and lots of raptors in the area I have my doubts on its long term survival at the location. I took lots of photos and more can be found at the following link: Smith's Longspur. Thanks to Scott for finding the bird and alerting everyone to its presence.
The species nests in the high Arctic and then migrates down the center of the US and Canada and overwinters in northeast Texas, eastern Oklahoma, most of Arkansas and small parts of Nebraska and Missouri and was not a species on my radar for showing up here as a vagrant. There are just a handful of records for the species in Massachusetts with no prior records from western Massachusetts. The bird becomes species #305 for me in Hampshire County and life bird #1704. It is my third new Hampshire County species this year, following a Common Eider in November and Arctic Terns in May.
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