Late January is the time to head to Solano County and look for the elusive Prairie Ghost. Also known as Dirt Claud Plover but officially by the improbable name mountain plover.

This plover is not found in the mountains but in the short grassland prairies or recently plowed fields. And unlike like other plovers it is not found near water (unless it’s a cattle trough).

Charadrius montanus winters in the fields of Solano County ( and other open places out west). To find this cryptic species you need a scope, luck, and lots of patience. The epicenter of wintering prairie ghosts is Robinson and Flannery Roads.

These country dirt roads are also a great place to view wintering raptors including harriers, merlin, prairie falcon, golden eagle, rough-legged, and ferruginous hawks.

Early on a Saturday morning, Grasshopper Sparrow and I headed to the Solano County birding hotspot known as “Robinson Road”. Mountain plover was his nemesis bird and after previous attempts, he had yet to add it to his life list.

Often this area can be shrouded in dense valley fog, making the plover that is already tough to spot, even tougher. But today, the skies were clear and sunny with vast visibility to find our quarry.

So it was that we found ourselves at 8:30 on Flannery Road looking south towards undulating green field being serenaded by western meadowlarks.

Now we were looking for feathered dirt clauds that had the power of “now you see me, now you don’t” invisibly. Once the plover turns its brown back to the viewer, hiding its white breast, it can be tough to find and it seems to melt into the dirt.

I scanned the fields with my binoculars, stopping at some prominent dirt clauds so I put the scope on them and they magically turned into mountain plovers. Lifer for Grasshopper!

Sketching Notes: Before I headed out to Robinson Road, I sketched in the border and the outline of the mountain plover in the bottom left of my panoramic journal. I would add a field sketch of the fields on location. If we did not see the plovers I would outline the silhouette of the bird and leave it unpainted. But if we were successful, I would paint the outline in, which I did in the final sketch.