BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?

Subject: where are larks found?
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 13 Dec 16 - 12:20 PM

I grew up near Lake Erie, and if there are larks around Lake Erie then I am the last to know about it. Other birds, in abundance, but seriously I doubt that I have ever heard a lark. Outside of music and songs and poetry and so on.

Subject: RE: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 13 Dec 16 - 02:16 PM

A map here
http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Alauda-arvensis 


5 minutes of song
https://m.soundcloud.com/vladimir-arkhipov/skylark-alauda-arvensis 

UK info & about their decline
http://www.rspb.org.uk/....discover/birds/skylarks.aspx
Spring is the best time to hear them but they are definitely not as easy to find as they were forty years ago.

Subject: RE: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 16 - 02:18 PM

In the Clear air...sorry, could not resist!

Subject: RE: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: GUEST,Henry Piper of Ottery
Date: 13 Dec 16 - 02:26 PM

............Or even just Ascending !!

Subject: RE: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Peter the Squeezer
Date: 13 Dec 16 - 02:44 PM

Or even (sorry) Melodious

Subject: RE: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 13 Dec 16 - 03:23 PM

They are pleasant and delightful to hear (and see) over a stretch of farmland where I walk the dog. However, when developers recently applied to build 300 houses on it, the local council turned it down, with the suggestion that a new submission for a much larger estate would probably be approved.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Dec 16 - 07:21 PM

Come to my bit of north Cornwall and you'll hear skylarks singing all through spring on the coast path. They have declined severely nationally due to the vandalistic depredations of intensive farming. Skylarks need grassland of a certain height for breeding, not too tall, not too short. The modern trend towards winter wheat and barley is devastating, as the crop is too tall by breeding time. The old way, spring-sown cereals, was ideal for them as the crop was just the right height by breeding time. Intensive early grazing of pasture, another modern trend, makes the grass too short for them, and we all know what's happened to those lovely hay meadows, almost all ploughed up. Ploughing in stubble is very bad for them too, what should be a vital winter resource. The National Trust farms much of the clifftop land around here, less intensively than normal in most cases, so the song of the lark is still a constant springtime companion hereabouts.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 05:22 AM

No help for US I'm afraid, but when we used to go to Alderney in the Channel islands there were always larks around, thanks as Steve has hinted, lack of intensive farming methods.

RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 05:36 AM

On sunny afternoons in late spring, ealy summer we sit at the back of our house here in West Clare and watch the larg rising from the next field and souring up singing until is disappears - we never see it come down but it reapeats this beautiful performance all day
For a treeless plain on the windswept West coast of Ireland, we are very lucky with bird life here, tits, herons, blackbirds, thrushes finches, robins, swallows, wrens... not forgetting the amusingly idiosyncratic wagtails - and loads and loads of starlings, jackdaws and magpies all in our back (euphemistically described) gaden - the only unwelcome visitor was the sparrow-hawk that snatcehed two small birds on its two visits, but thankfully, never returned.
We were in our local bar one night and people were waxing lyrical about the cuckoos when a man at the end of the bar muttered loudly, "Feckin' menaces - they start up at six in the morning and don't stop till six at night".
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 06:45 AM

Hi, Keberoxu -
Wikipedia says the Eastern Meadowlark should be in your area. The Western Meadowlark is supposed to be in my area, but I've never identified any kind of lark.

And despite the 1941 song by Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael, it's unlikely you'll see a Skylark in the United States - although they are seen occasionally in the U.S.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 09:31 AM

We're lucky too here in Norfolk UK. Very varied habitat (fields, coast, wetlands, rivers & lakes, woodlands etc) means we have an excellent selection of bird species. Skylarks are often heard in the fields, but (according to Norfolk Wildlife Trust, of which I'm a member) they have declined in numbers by 50% due, as Steve says above, to intensive farming methods. We have many nature reserves here in Norfolk though where they are safe, which is lovely.

I sat on a straw bale at the edge of a field last Spring enjoying the total and utter silence, then a skylark began to sing high in the sky. It really brought tears to my eyes. (I'm a daft old thing)

Sorry keberoxu, none of this is any help to you in US.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 11:14 AM

"We're lucky too here in Norfolk UK"
We used to know North Norfolk pretty well and were alarmed when the hedgerows began to disappear to accommodate the multinational's farming techniques - no habitat for wildlife and great loss of topsoil from the Easterly winds - I hope that has been reversed now.
We had a very strange experience there once when heading for the home of a friend in Knapton.
We saw a car stopped in the road in front of us and when we drew in to see if we could be of help we found a young man cradling an obviously injured large bird.
As he couldn't wait, we offered to take the bird to somewhere it could receive some attention.
It transpired that the bird, a crested grebe, had injured itself by trying to land on the road at speed
The people at the seal sanctuary (all we could find) told us that after rain the roads appear to be stretches of water and birds often land on them by mistake.
We called back a couple of days later to find the grebe was recovering well - we trust it didn't end up in a pie!!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 11:39 AM

Oh Jim, that was so very kind of you to help the injured grebe.
Yes, I've noticed quite a bit of tree-planting around the edges of fields, but no-one seems to be reducing field size. We get gigantic combine harvesters here, and they need massive fields. The hedges seem to be mainly hawthorn, a good choice for winter berries. However, near our village the farmers are now leaving broad belts of cover around the edges of their fields, and even putting in sunflowers and other flowers for seeds for wildlife.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 12:31 PM

"Oh Jim, that was so very kind of you to help the injured grebe. "
I would have expected the same help from him if I was lying on the road
Do I remember rightly - do you live inland?
We have twenty years of happy memories in coastal Norfolk - mainly recording our old singer singer friend, Walter Pardon
He' like us, was disturbed at the changes that were taking place but his company was enough to take us there as often as we could manage.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 12:37 PM

An exaltation of skylarks....as soon as I scare up some headphones, I will link to that recording through FreddyHeadey's response post.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Mo the caller
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 01:27 PM

"However, near our village the farmers are now leaving broad belts of cover around the edges of their fields, and even putting in sunflowers and other flowers for seeds for wildlife."

They are being paid by the EU to do so. A few years ago there was a scheme for extra footpaths - the payment stopped and the footpath signs were taken down! I somehow can't see that scheme lasting after Brexit either - or much else of the Eu regulation.
Just at a time when the perverse payments to ruin the environment change, we leave.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: leeneia
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 02:21 PM

Keberoxu, if you are still in North America, research "meadowlark."

In Europe, "skylark."

Elsewhere, I dunno.

If you just want to hear how the birds sound, just go to YouTube and search by name.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 02:39 PM

More than one Lark in the Morning, I like this skylark, etc.

But I've sat outside with Pip (my mother so supposedly I should have the better hearing) and she has heard one (and unlike me, would know a lark's call). This is North Norfolk less than a mile in a straight line from the coast.

There is about 90 acres of field around us but not all is used. The bit closer to our property is limited by a pipe to a septic tank and we rent a bit of that (veg plot, etc). A bit further up, there is still a division and even pigsties lost from sight mostly by brambles and blackthorn. Blackbirds seem to like that area.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 02:46 PM

We had a very strange experience there once when heading for the home of a friend in Knapton.

We once got lost, I think near Gresham, and while driving very slowly had a barn owl "overtake" the car.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 03:07 PM

We're about 10 miles from the coast, near Elsing and Sparham.
We used to clean a holiday barn at Bale, not far from the Snorings (N Norfolk), and the wildlife there was truly wonderful. Lots of big hares loping around the fields, loads of fallow deer and several barn owls. They do indeed seem to race the car, as they fly parallel to the road above the drainage ditches and hedgerows looking for voles and mice.
Farmers have rather a bad time of it in some ways. We have two dairy farmers in our village and they're struggling with the low milk prices and high cost of cattle feed. TB is a worry; we have quite a lot of badgers and it's said they carry it. (Not sure if that's true)
Back to larks - I just love their song, but I wonder why it makes me feel emotional? The little birds sound so vulnerable and sweet I suppose.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 05:43 PM

Just listned to a moment or two of the soundcloud audio.
Ye Gods! What a commotion!
There's a cuckoo nearby as well. So I have not only heard my first lark, but my first cuckoo, on that recording.

Eliza, there is a real place called The Snorings?!

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 05:51 PM

Yes indeed keberoxu. It's actually two adjacent villages called Little Snoring and Great Snoring, known locally as The Snorings.
We live right next to Fustyweed. And my husband drives to work along Nowhere Lane. Strange place Norfolk...

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 06:06 PM

So I took a quick trip to YouTube and back, Holy Moly.

One fellow hit the jackpot with his camerawork. His little video is no more than half a minute. But the skylark is sitting on a fencepost singing up a storm. The last time I saw a singing bird working that hard, it was one of those arrogant mockingbirds, with the throat moving every which way as it imitated one birdcall after another. This little fellow could be seen AND heard in full song. Extraordinary.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Dec 16 - 06:45 PM

The Eurasian skylark is not native in North America, though it has been introduced. I'd be interested to hear of any genuine sightings/hearings in the US.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 15 Dec 16 - 03:41 AM

We have "duelling skylarks" here in East Lancashire in the spring and summer. The European skylark sings while flying upwards to a couple of hundred feet then slowly descends. About 40 feet up they stop singing and dive down to the ground. Each flight is about 3 1/2 minutes.
Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Dec 16 - 01:10 PM

For most of us the only chance is on YouTube.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Dec 16 - 02:23 PM

We lived in Loughton, right on the edge of the forest, until 1986. I've asked Mrs Steve if she remembers ever hearing skylarks there (we were there for eight years and we did ramble around all over the place). Neither of us can remember hearing one.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Dec 16 - 02:25 PM

Epping Forest. I forgot I wasn't just talking to Kevin!

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Thompson
Date: 15 Dec 16 - 04:12 PM

Lots in the Dublin Mountains and the Wicklow Hills.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Will Fly
Date: 16 Dec 16 - 03:17 AM

There are still skylarks to be heard on the South Downs in Sussex, though the ever-encroaching house developments don't help.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Dec 16 - 01:32 PM

I can't think of a language that doesn't have a word for Lark, obviously my languages are limited largely to Europe:

alouette

allodola

Lerche ...

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 16 Dec 16 - 01:49 PM

Beautiful Scots word "Laverock"
The MacCalman's version id available on line, but I much prefer Lizzie Higgins singing it (her album used it as the title)
Jim Carroll

Up And Awa Wi' The Laverock

MacLennan / Andy Hunter)

       Up and awa' and awa' wi' the laverock
       Up and awa' and awa' in the morning
       Up and awa' and awa' wi' the laverock
       Up and awa' tae the hills wi' me

Wi' yir cast and yir gut and yir flea and yir heuk
Wi' yir cast and yir gut and yir rod and yir reel
Wi' yir cast and yir gut and a wee pickle luck
Ye'll hae plenty o' troot fur tae pit in yir creel

Fur there's troot in the Jaw and troot in Loch Awe
There's troot in the Leven, the Tummel, the Spey
Loch Kethrine's watter is guid fur a batter
The mair ye can slauchter the mair ye can fry

Wi' yir drum on the fire ye're laird o' the shire
Wi' yir drum on the fire ye're makin' yir tea
Wi' yir drum on the fire ye canna weel tire
O' the wheeplin curlew coorlin' free
(as sung by The McCalmans)

Tune: Jig o' Slurs
laverock - lark; heuk - hook; wee - little; drum - billy-can

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 16 Dec 16 - 08:56 PM

As Freddy Headey said near the top of the thread, you can hear almost any bird song for UK birds on the RSPB (The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) website.
Of course there are other birds that you can hear ad infinitum ad nauseam, but never actually SEE the buggers as they hide in reeds and long grass and are well camouflaged, e.g the corncrake.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 17 Dec 16 - 04:16 AM

This year I heard several nightjars, and actually managed to see one, not easy as they don't fly until it's nearly dark, and keep low over the bracken. Also a nightingale - they arrive every year and sing in the bramble patch behind my garden, but are rather secretive in their habits, like me.

I would have thought that the number of places in the UK where you can hear corncrakes 'ad infinitum ad nauseam' is rather limited..... On my part of the Suffolk coast, it's quite easy to hear a bittern booming, but I made several visits to the Minsmere reserve before I saw them, both booming and as a pair stalking fish. Stone curlews next...

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Will Fly
Date: 17 Dec 16 - 04:26 AM

I can confirm a sighting - a few years ago - of a rare Rusty Dobro in a Suffolk village one summer's evening. To see such a secretive bird in its natural habitat - in full voice, by the way - was a huge treat.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 17 Dec 16 - 04:39 AM

Yes, not many corncrakes about, but I do remember being kept awake by them on Cape Clear Island, off the coast of Co Cork. Also waiting for over an hour in the hope of seeing one on S Uist (could hear them all about us!)
And bitterns booming, on Iona too.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Jim Martin
Date: 17 Dec 16 - 07:15 AM

When they reach there maximum height, they 'parachute' back down & there song changes or may even stop (woodlarks do the same thing but they live on different habitat - generally heathland where I used to see & hear them in S. Bedfordshire).

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Dec 16 - 02:05 PM

Someone wrote of barn owls, low to the ground, matching speed with a cruising auto. In the American Southwest, the wagon trains -- and the many forms of ground transport which have succeeded them -- have observed the same playfulness in roadrunners, putting their large heads down and forward, making their bodies horizontal, and matching speed with the mechanical conveyance.

I lived near the Four Corners for many adult years, but of all the roadrunners I spotted -- including one in the parking lot of my apartment building next to the freeway -- I never, ever, heard one say
BEEP BEEP or make any other noise for that matter.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: gnu
Date: 17 Dec 16 - 05:18 PM

King Crimson... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVb2tnFN5AA

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Dec 16 - 07:59 PM

Coleridge liked the word laverock too - in the Ancient Mariner one of verses that most sticks in the mind is

Sometimes a dropping from the sky
I heard the Lavrock sing;
Sometimes all little birds that are
How they seem'd to fill the sea and air
With their sweet jargoning,

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Dec 16 - 08:33 PM

We used to see barn owls frequently around here, just south of Bude in north Cornwall. Sadly, I haven't seen one for years. The farm I live on (not my farm!) has planted lots of trees, as has the adjoining farm. That's good in many ways but it's wrecked the open country habitat that barn owls thrive on. I used to drive from here down the coast to near Wadebridge to a session, and you'd often pick one up in the headlights just before complete darkness, flying across the road. That doesn't happen any more either. We get lots of little owls and we can always depend on tawny owls calling on cold, quiet nights. We get the odd sighting of a long-eared owl but I don't think I look hard enough.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 18 Dec 16 - 08:17 AM

I wonder if there's any correlation between the spread of buzzards (certainly plenty in Cornwall last summer) and the perceived decline of barn owls, as they both take the same prey? Buzzards seem to be everywhere now, but it's a long time since I've seen a barn owl, even in the fields where they used to be much in evidence.

Incidentally, a park in the middle of Ipswich has a resident tawny owl known as Mabel, who sits in a hollow tree all day watching the people go by, and is thought to be the most photographed owl in Britain.

Sad news of the lone Rusty Dobro noted by Will Fly above - it can still be seen flitting from place to place, but its glorious plumage has fallen out, and its song, never melodious, is now harsh and tuneless. It often travels in the company of an elderly martin.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Dec 16 - 08:59 PM

I don't think so. There are indeed plenty of buzzards hereabouts, and it's not uncommon to see five or more soaring in the summer sky in a loose ensemble. But buzzards are lazy buggers. They will go for carrion and slugs and snails as much as for live prey. We have plenty of buzzards around here, along with more mice and rabbits that I care to contemplate. So the grub is there. Must be some other explanation.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Thompson
Date: 19 Dec 16 - 10:52 AM

I'm looking for kingfishers. I cycle down the river and back every day, but have failed to see any so far.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Dec 16 - 11:27 AM

There's a riverside walk in the centre of Norwich UK. We were ambling along beside the Hotel Nelson, traffic roaring past on the bridge above, when a kingfisher shot out of his hole in the bank beside us and flashed away across the river Wensum. Beautiful turquoise shimmer, but very fast. Didn't realise there were kingfishers there!

We also have buzzards and red kites. They're quite good at swooping down and grabbing rats in their talons. And like Steve I've seen them eating roadkill carrion. The barn owl ("Barny") who flew along our ditch seemed to catch more in the way of smaller prey such as shrews and mice; once I saw him grab a slow-worm! I've heard that owls' habitat is dwindling. They like old barns and outbuildings, and farmers are demolishing them nowadays.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Brian Peters
Date: 19 Dec 16 - 11:42 AM

'Laverocks' in Scotland, 'Layrocks' in Lancashire - hence the saying reproduced in Harry Boardman's book of Lancashire songs:

"We mun cower on t'ground like layrocks
But we go up like layrocks to sing."

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Dec 16 - 04:39 PM

We frequently see kingfishers on the first mile of the Bude canal, walking inland from Bude. You have to pick the right day, dry and not too windy, keep your middle-distance eye peeled and watch for them darting in straight lines a foot above the water, that flash of stunning electric blue giving the game away.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Dec 16 - 10:54 AM

That's wonderful, Steve. I would like to see one of your brightly-colored kingfishers some day.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Rumncoke
Date: 20 Dec 16 - 02:59 PM

Back when the children watched children's TV I used to hear Yorkshire larks on 'Postman Pat' - I know they were from Yorkshire as I recognised the accent.
I have heard larks in other parts of the country, but they don't seem to make me catch my breath like those on my home turf.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Dec 16 - 03:13 PM

According to the RSPB, Rumncoke, songbirds do in fact have regional accents, especially those which don't travel far. I think its lovely that you 'catch your breath' at the Yorkshire larks' song.

I wonder if Norfolk larks sing, "Hev yew gotta loit bwoy?"

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Dec 16 - 06:14 PM

Yorkshire larks have been heard to sing "Aye, buggerit. Does this cost owt?"

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Dec 16 - 03:42 AM

Hahaha! And maybe Liverpool larks sing "Calm down! Calm down!"

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 19 Mar 17 - 05:06 AM

According to the RSPB, Rumncoke, songbirds do in fact have regional accents,

"Tweet Of The Day" BBC lark on the radio today, this'll be the 'correct' accent
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03tht7c

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 19 Mar 17 - 05:15 AM

Just had a few days in the Lake District and the Larks there do seem to have a different accent from the ones here in Lancashire, and that's less that 100 miles away. The Lake District ones seemed to be singing for a shorter flight time than ours as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Mar 17 - 05:47 AM

"Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou - PM
Date: 20 Dec 16 - 03:13 PM

According to the RSPB, Rumncoke, songbirds do in fact have regional accents, especially those which don't travel far. I think its lovely that you 'catch your breath' at the Yorkshire larks' song.

I wonder if Norfolk larks sing, "Hev yew gotta loit bwoy?""
no they sing mind your head bor, theres lots of larks would now be dead if they didnt hve the sense to mind their head.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Mar 17 - 07:13 AM

"Thass a lot o' squit!" they saaay!

GoodSoldierSchweik, dew yer faather ha' a dickey? :)

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: akenaton
Date: 19 Mar 17 - 03:58 PM

In my youth in the West of Scotland, we would rise every morning to the song of the skylark in early Summer.
It was wonderful.

Now the small arable farming has long gone and with it many of our wild birds. The land is in "Set Aside", which means it is being allowed to return to its natural state, mostly rushes and small scrub.

It is very many years since I heard the Peesies, Curlews Snipe, no Thrushes, very few Blackbirds......The mornings and especially the late evenings are as quiet as the grave.

The biggest loss in my area is birdsong.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 03:01 PM

On a trek in the uplands one day we discovered that larks hover by singing and farting at the same time.

Or maybe we made that up :-D

On a more serious note (pun intended) in the summer there are always some up on the ridge above our village between Lund's tower and Cowling pinnacle. We used to hear loads on Kinder when we used to bog trot over there regularly but not been up there for a while so I don't know if it is still the same.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Mar 17 - 05:43 PM

Skylarks need short vegetation in spring for their nesting areas. Spring-sown barley or wheat were ideal, but there's been a big move towards crops sown in autumn instead. By the time the larks' breeding season arrives, the crops are too high. That's been a huge problem for skylarks. Round here they do well in old pasture, meadows (what's left of them) and to a lesser extent in leys. Like many songbirds they are in trouble because of modern farming practices. In the next few years I think we are going to see a big revolt against neonicotinoid insecticides. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that they are a significant threat to both the natural world and to the future security of our food supplies.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: jojofolkagogo
Date: 27 Mar 17 - 04:04 PM

Certainly NOT in Berkeley Square - no larls oe Nightingales ! I have always said that although the song (a n'gale sang ...) is lovely Berkeley Square in London is one of the most horrible squares there are in there - it's very plain and ordinary with no redeeming features !! Jo

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Mar 17 - 04:21 PM

I sat on the bench in our front garden this morning and a lark was singing its heart out almost directly above my head. I also saw a buzzard lazily soaring around. No red kites today though.
The larks round here manage to nest in the meadows where two farmers keep their dairy herds and there's also have a beef herd. The land is 'breck' (we live in Breckland in Norfolk) which is rather stony, well-drained and shallow soil. It's a good habitat for all sorts of wildlife.
Amorous pigeons, crows and seagulls still managing to decorate our conservatory windows :(

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Mar 17 - 05:22 PM

Two larks were singing on the cliffs at Upton, between Bude and Widemouth Bay, this afternoon.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jan 18 - 07:21 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 13 Feb 18 - 01:02 PM

Were walking on the South Downs last Sunday and saw and heard my first skylark of the year.
Subsequently drove home to Lancashire and ended up walking home the last mile in a blizzard!

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 14 Feb 18 - 11:22 AM

According to Lerner and Loewe, on the street where you live ;)

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: leeneia
Date: 16 Feb 18 - 03:49 PM

Black belt, I'm sorry to hear about that. But I'm glad to hear you made it home okay.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Feb 18 - 08:57 PM

Nah, Leeneia. Us northerners love a bit of meteorological privation. Nowt like a few water droplets dripping from yer nose when yer enjoying a winter's hike and pint up Owd Betts! It turns you 'ard, tha knows!

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 18 Feb 18 - 12:13 PM

Today we had the first skylark singing at home!

Almost all the snow has gone now, just a stump left of the snowman we built to amuse a granddaughter last Monday.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 09:47 PM

'Tis the season.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Apr 18 - 12:08 PM

Lark song, anyone?

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Apr 18 - 12:10 PM

By the way, jojofolkagogo,
doesn't the lyric say that

"a NIGHTINGALE sang in Berkeley Square,"
not a lark?

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Apr 18 - 06:31 PM

again refresh

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 05:36 AM

Duelling skylarks singing yesterday over our field.
I've seen them around the last week or so but no proper "lark ascending" singing until yesterday.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 05:52 AM

to answer the OP

"in any other part of town"



(confusingly On the Street Where You Live)

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 06:02 AM

No larks yet, but we're inundated with tits! I put out some fat balls and sunflower hearts and about six blue tits descended. Dear little birds.
Mr Coal Tit is still screeching "Teacher" Teacher! Teacher!" on and on and on until one could scream.

Noticed a lovely little water wagtail at the main door of Morrisons supermarket in Norwich yesterday. He was picking up bits dropped by 'Street Munchers'. Strange place for him to haunt, but the River Wensum is about two hundred yards away, I expect he lives there.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 06:24 AM

"Where can I hear a lark sing?"
Come to Miltown Malbay in Summertime
Can't guarantee you'll be able to see the elusive buggers though - they're like the stonechats
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Feb 19 - 12:17 PM

At this point, even the robins are not back yet.

The robins are always early around here.
It's been a year since that last return of the robins,
but the memory is so vivid, I can see them now.

It seems like they all show up at once.
These stout red-breasted birds
that would rather hop than step one foot at a time.
All these grown-up robins kind of cluttering the ground,
hopping here and there.
And taking to the trees as a last resort.
... well, they are not here yet, but they will be.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 23 Feb 19 - 02:51 PM

PM me and you can have a couple of ours
They are usually lone birds, but three of them have been kicking the **** out of each other for a few weeks now
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 Feb 19 - 06:16 PM

American robins are not the same as European robins.

In Europe robins are territorial and aggressive and not migratory (and no longer part of the thrush family). In America - I believe they are more the size of a thrush and migrate.

Looks to be a similar story with the lark. America - horned lark, UK skylark.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 07 Feb 20 - 03:51 AM

Yesterday we had the first skylark of the year singing overhead. It seemed to be getting earlier each year. The magpies are rebuilding their nest again as well.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Senoufou
Date: 07 Feb 20 - 04:21 AM

My neighbour and I heard the very loud drumming of a woodpecker yesterday, in the little wood next to our village. I think (judging by the volume!) it was probably a Greater Spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major).
The birds here are all sounding 'perky' and 'giving it the big'un' for Spring. The weather has been so weird that they're confused.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 10:28 AM

Somebody was looking for this thread,
so here it is.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 12:55 PM

No larks where I am staying:
all hills, mountains, and solid granite with rivers running through it,
so no place for the larks to nest.
No shortage of trees, however,
and the chickadees are very noisy in the trees.
They make me laugh.

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 01:19 PM

There are few or no Eurasian skylarks (our species) in north America. Your species is the horned lark. It hasn't got the powerful song of our skylark but, like our bird, it's a bird of open country. Other than this, I know nothing!

Subject: RE: BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Feb 23 - 09:35 AM

what about meadowlarks?