A-LarkBunting

Follow-up Photo Study Of A Lark Bunting At Bombay Hook NWR, September 21st, 2010

    The sunny day forecast and the continuing reports that the Bombay Hook Lark Bunting was still hanging out on the south bound dike at Raymond's motivated me to try and
    photograph this neat bird again. The Lark Bunting was certainly accommodating, feeding actively on seeds and grasshoppers, from 11:00 AM when I arrived until 3:30PM
    when I had to leave. In any event, the photos today were taken both in shade and out in the open which accounts for the variations and nuances in the bird's coloring. Please
    note that the Bunting seems to have a diseased or injured right eye. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have been affected in its ability to find food or its being spooked by the cars
    going by on the dike at > forty miles per hour as well as whenever a Dover AFB plane flies overhead.

Also, there has been some on-going discussion for the past few days about the Bunting's age and gender. I'll leave the debate to the experts...I'm just an old picture-taker. But
if any of my photos in this study are definitive enough for a positive determination, please let me know.

An Update:

    The Lark Bunting winters in southern Texas and Mexico. It breeds in South Dakota (as well as other prairie states and provinces in the U.S. and
    Canada.) It is also the State Bird of Colorado. So I recently sent out the link with the photographs to some experts in Texas, Colorado and South
    Dakota and asked them for help in identifying the gender and age of the Lark Bunting.

    I received back six responses and the results are as follows:

    `             ● all six people said that the bird was a Hatch or First Year Bird
                  ● four said that it was a male
                  ● two declined to state gender

These replies, together with Tyler Bell’s original posted comments, have convinced me that our visitor is (was) a Hatch Year Male Lark Bunting!
Tyler, by the way, called it on day one!

Left Side View, Partial Shade

Left Side View, Full Sun

Right Side View, Full Shade

Right Side View, Full Sun

Frontal View, Full Sun

Left Side Under The Wing And Tail Spread View, Full Sun

Right Side View, Partial Shade

    I certainly would be remiss if I didn't thank Karen and Chris Bennett once again for finding and reporting the Lark Bunting in the first place. The Lark Bunting is considered
    a rarity anywhere east of the Mississippi River and, apparently, this is the first confirmed sighting of the bird in the State of Delaware. I'd also like to thank the other birders,
    of course, who have been reporting its continuing presence.

To see a larger image of any of the photos below, please click on either the thumbnails or the captions...thanks!


A-LarkBunting	B-LarkBunting	C-LarkBunting	D-LarkBunting	E-LarkBunting

F-LarkBunting	G-LarkBunting	H-LarkBunting	I-LarkBunting	J-LarkBunting

K-LarkBunting	L-LarkBunting	M-LarkBunting	N-LarkBunting	O-LarkBunting

P-LarkBunting	Q-LarkBunting	R-LarkBunting	S-LarkBunting	T-LarkBunting