Towheeblog

In the Old World you can listen to the Skylark or watch the robust Calandra Lark run like a Killdeer.  There are still a few imported Skylarks surviving at the Victoria, BC, Airport.  But most American birders can only count on finding our one native lark species–Horned Lark, known in Britain as “Shore Lark.”  We should not complain as the Old World has one wren, no tyrant flycatchers or vireos or wood warblers or icterids.  There are American birds whose songs earned them “lark” but neither the Lark Sparrow noe the meadowlarks are close genetically to the true lark family.
We found Horned Larks on our Field Station birding trips in several locations: Chickahominy Reservoir where they ran along the shore (see above), Ruh-red Road where it was dry, The Narrows, the windmill on Sodhourse Road east of the headquarters.This male was struggling in the wind to hold his perch so he could sing to the unseen females hiding in the brush.  At Chickahominy.Our state bird, the wanna-be –lark: