Water Pipit,Anthus spinoletta.
September 25 to April 24. Fairly common transient, uncommon and local
winter resident. Observed on open, plowed fields, open pond flats,
and bare open shorelines like those at Beaver Lake when water levels
are low. The highest counts occur during October. A total of 65 were
seen at Lake Sequoyah near Fayetteville on October 24, 1983, at a time
when the water level was low, exposing extensive mudflats. Numbers seen
in winter are much lower, infrequently even as many as the nine reported
on the 1983 Christmas Bird Count at Fayetteville. It can usually be found
around the fish hatchery ponds at Centerton during winter.
Sprague's Pipit,Anthus spragueii.
Douglas James saw 1-5 birds in an open field near Farmington in Washington
County between December 15, 1956, and April 17, 1957. Otherwise, this
species has not been found in the region. Clawson (1982: 54) lists it as
an "occasional migrant" in extreme southwestern Missouri. James' winter
1956-1957 sightings involved an open pasture with very sparse vegetation
somewhat typical of the old prairie areas of western Washington and Benton Counties.