Larks

Horned Lark***

Eremophila alpestris
Richard O’Hara almost pitied the dozen Horned Larks he saw on the state fields along Elmwood Avenue on 20 February 1938. “They looked so small and helpless in the large field covered with snow, nothing to eat but a few weed seeds, and yet singing happily,” the 14-year old entered in his diary that day. “Their song is very sweet . . . and when sung on the wing with the same peculiar flight and much the same quality and their white markings, they remind me forcibly of Bobolinks. ‘Winter Bobolinks indeed!’” This resident of open farm fields has a distinctive, “tinkling aerial courtship song.” (Andrle, p. 264) This is an extremely hardy species. It nests as early as March on bare ground or in fields of stubble or short grass. John Brown reported on a nest near Avon with “two newly hatched but thriving nestlings . .. found in the snow” in April 1965. “The weekend snow had apparently covered the nest and the brooding female, but the young birds seemed healthy. . .” (BA, 22 April 1965)
Background
This common, widespread bird of open country occurs from the Arctic south to central Asia and Mexico, with outlying populations in Morocco and Colombia. It prefers short, sparsely vegetated prairies, deserts and agricultural lands, and is one of the first species to colonize bare ground reclaimed from strip mines. Its numbers increased dramatically in eastern North America during the last half of the 19th century, when the clearing of forests for farm and grasslands reached its peak. Since the mid 1940s, this expansion has reversed in the northeast U.S. and southern Ontario province where abandoned farmland has reverted to forests, and remaining farmland has been devoted increasingly to corn and alfalfa. Many nests have a collection of “pavings” – clods, pebbles, cornstalks, corncobs or cow dung – next to them. Across its broad geographic range there is much variation in body size and colorations, especially of the eyebrow, throat and ear coverts; back color is “strongly correlated with the color of the local soil,” notes Robert C. Beason in his profile of this species for The Birds of North America series. Canadian birds migrate; most in U.S. are year-round residents. (BNA 195: 1, 3, 6, 12)
Local history
The transformation of New York’s landscape that occurred during the 1800s was staggering. By about 1880, a state that had once been primarily virgin forest was 75 percent agricultural land, creating “vast artificial ‘barrens.’ ” (Andrle, p. 264) While this proved devastating for many woodland species, other species benefited. And none more so than Horned Lark. “When much of the forest was cleared by the middle of the nineteenth century, these birds took advantage of the newly created openings, and moved from the prairie regions of Ohio and Ontario eastward into New York,” Bull noted. (Bull, p. 380) First definite breeding record in New York State was in 1875 when a nest with eggs was found near Buffalo.The following year it nested near Rochester, and by 1879 had reached western Long Island. Eaton (1910) listed it as a common summer resident in Monroe and Livingston counties, also occurring in Wayne. It was also abundant as a transient and occasional as a year-round resident in Monroe. (Eaton I: county charts) R. E. Horsey, in his listing of birds seen at Rochester and Monroe County from 1913 to 1936, described this as “almost if not resident.” He reported average counts of one to six birds, with a maximum count of 150.When Leo Tanghe examined 1,665 outings by Genesee Ornithological Society members from 1951-1954, this species was reported year round, with total of 522 sightings (and another 14 sightings of “Northern Horned Lark”). Highest average counts of 50 to 70 occurred third week of March. Most sightings occurred February through May and again in October. (KB 5: 69: 4A-4B)In 1953, Tanghe listed this as a common breeder in the Rochester area, and specifically mentioned Albion and Greece as nesting locations. (GOS, May/August 1953)Now, with large sections of the state being reforested, and with other previous agricultural land being lost to development, the fortunes of this species may be undergoing a reversal.
Status
The Monroe County annotated list (1985) described this as a common spring transient and common permanent resident.Livingston County, Fox (1998) considered this a regular very common to uncommon winter visitant and a regular uncommon summer resident.
Occurrence
Spring: “Spring’s unofficial appearance in Rochester yesterday and last week had an official chronicler in the song of the prairie horned lark,” noted the weekly newspaper report of the Burroughs-Audubon Nature Club in January 1933. (“Prairie Horned Lark Returns Northward as Weather Becomes Mild,” D&C, 23 January 1933) Spring maxima: 500 on 4 March 1984 (Genesee Ornithological Society trip) at Nations Road. (GOS, May 1984) 600 on 11 March 1978 (Perrigo) west lakeshore. (LG, April 1978) 500 in March 1993 (R. and M. Gerner) at Victor. (GOS, May 1993) 1,240 on 26 March 2007 (D. Tetlow) Braddock Bay. (LG, May 2007) 2,200 on 31 March 2005 (Symonds, D. Tetlow) migrating at Braddock Bay. (LG, May 2005)
Breeding status: The BBA projects suggest this species may indeed be undergoing a reversal of fortune. During the first project, the west lakeshore into eastern Orleans County had one of the heaviest concentrations of confirmed breeding anywhere in the state. During the second project, confirmations were obtained in far fewer blocks there. More ominously, a core of blocks with no evidence of breeding immediately around Rochester during the first project had noticeably expanded during the second, to include most of Monroe County and much of western Wayne.

Fall maxima: 300 on 23 October 1977 (F. and R. Dobson) at Kendall. (GNR) 400 on 21 November 1998 (Kimball) Nation’s Road. (GOS, January 1999)
Winter: Winter flocks come to roadsides for seeds and grit. When disturbed by approaching cars, “they flit away quickly, never getting more than a few feet above the ground, often circling wide to settle again in the spot from which they flew,” Frank Dobson noted. (Birds, 26 February 1984) Some years they can become “quite scarce” for a few weeks from late December to late January or early February. (KB 22:86) Other years, large flocks can be found. (See Maxima below.)During a drive through the western New York countryside in February 1983, Dobson watched horned larks hustling for seeds and grit along a road. “Edging closer, more horned larks feed busily on nearly snow-buried ragweeds, scattered about a young orchard. The weight of a lark bends a seed head to the ground, where often more than one bird feeds from the same stalk. There is no bickering. This is survival.” (Birds, 13 February 1983) This species is attracted to undigested seeds in fresh manure spreads. By late winter, resident pairs begin the courtship routine. Dobson, touring the Genesee River valley south from Scottsville in 1985, noted how “pairs would chase each other in circles across the open fields. Singing males perched on corn stalks and with heads tipped up, piped forth the their delightful melodies.” (Birds, 10 March 1985)
Winter maxima: 616 on 13 December 1975 in the “Letchworth area.” (LG, January 1976) 500 on 13 January 1994 (C. Cass, Clarridge) near Avon. (GOS, March 1994) 900 on 18 January 2004 (D. Tetlow, Symonds) at Byron. (LG, March 2004)1300 on 5 February 1994 (C. Cass) along the west lakeshore. (GOS, April 1994)

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