I had always wanted to see a Smith's in its more striking breeding plumage. This photo, taken from the internet, shows the stark difference between it and the winter plumage above.
Their breeding range is in the Arctic, extending from Hudson Bay to Alaska, but if you time it right and travel to The Plains or the Midwest, you might see them in their breeeding plumage as they head north from their winter range in areas of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. That was my original plan, plus there are two birds, the Great Tit and the European Goldfinch, which have established populations in Wisconsin and Illinois respectively, so I figured on trying to see them, too, while I was out that way. That plan changed a bit when an Asian duck called a Baikal Teal showed up at the Hillman Marsh Conservation Area in Ontario, which would be another life bird. So, instead of driving straight west to Indiana, my plan was now to cross into Canada at Buffalo, New York, head down to Hillman Marsh Conservation Area for the Baikal Teal, enter back into the U.S. at Detroit, drive around the bottom of Lake Michigan and up to Sheboygan, Wisconsin for the Great Tit, head back down to Illinois Beach State Park for the European Goldfinch, then down to either Illinois or Indiana, hoping to find a breeding plumaged Smith's Longspur.
Monday, April 20, 2026
I left around 4:30 AM and started the 9-hour drive to the Hillman Marsh Conservation Area near Leamington, Ontario, Canada. The western New York state landscape was coated with snow as I drove through several snow showers there, but the roads were fine and everything went well as I breezed through customs and continued down the north side of Lake Erie. I got to Hillman Marsh around 2:00 PM and walked out to the "Shorebird Cell" where the teal was being seen. There was another couple there looking for it when I arrived, but we couldn't find it. During the next hour, several other Canadian birders arrived, including Chris Escott, who has the 3rd highest list for Canada. Around 4:00, I spotted the Baikal Teal at the far east side of the impoundment and got everyone else on it! It was very distant, so my photos are really poor, but good enough to show the male's distinctive facial pattern.
I got these extremely poor photos of it taking off when a guy with his dog got too close to this very skittish bird.
I spent another hour watching for it to come back. It evenutally did, because I refound it about an hour later. Unfortunately, it wasn't any closer than it was before, so I enjoyed watching it through my scope. On my way back to the car, I stopped at the bird blind where several birders were. They said they hadn't seen it, so I started looking for it from there. I eventually found it again and got everyone there on it, too. I was one-for-one! I got a motel in Leamington and celebrated with a Wendy's 'Frosty' as I watched the Flyers beat the Penguins in their first playoff game. It was a win, win.
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