[EBB Sightings] Smith's Longspur? - Alameda Co.

This afternoon on the NW corner of Mt. Trashmore at Hayward Regional 
Shoreline in Hayward, I saw a longspur. I am not at all familiar with 
the different longspurs, and I only got a look from the back and a 
profile of the face, no side or front views. I also did not see the 
bird fly.

What I did see. The bird was all alone. The area was short grass with 
tufts of longer grass. The bird was large-sparrow sized, but very 
stocky and had a horizontal aspect. The head was large and flat. The 
beak was pink, and fairly long and pointed. The eye was large and dark 
with a definite thin complete eye-ring. The face had a triangular 
face-patch that was thinly outlined and there was no strong supercilium 
or moustache stripe. The top of the head, nape and back were all 
heavily streaked. The tail was long and had complete white edges. The 
bird was a warm, buffy and brown.

As I said, I did not see the sides or front of this bird at all. It was 
walking away from me in the grass, and when I worked around to try and 
get a better view, it had disappeared.

 From the pictures in Sibley, the bird looked most like the 1st winter 
Smith's Longspur. However, Smith's Longspur is not on the Alameda Co. 
list.
Anyway, if you are up on Mt. Trashmore, keep your eyes open.

There were 6 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE, 2 SNOW GEESE - an adult and a 
juvenile, and 3 ROSS'S GEESE, each species keeping company with a 
different flock of CANADA GEESE.

Kathy Parker
Los Gatos