BS: Where can I hear a lark sing?

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.