The Skylark

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 I reported yesterday that I had seen and heard my first skylark of the year on the moors above us.


Not many people get as good a view of a skylark as this. Normally a skylark is seen as a tiny dot in the  sky and it will probably be a view in silhouette with little detail visible. Close up you may see a crest on the male which it can raise or lower. It has a longish tail with white feathers at the tail edge. The adult sings on a rising hover with songs lasting 2 or 3 minutes.  
I find it hard to believe but in the last 30 years we have lost 90 percent of our skylarks. This is probably because of the negative effects of farming practices on these ground nesting birds. In the past farmers would have a crop a year, harvest in the autumn, leave the stubble to a Spring sowing and so on. Nowadays the custom is to plough in the Autumn and plant a winter crop. This means there is no stubble in the Autumn and the crop is too tall for the birds to forage in in the Spring. Farmers are encouraged to leave a patch of bare land for the skylarks but tend to leave this at the edges of the field rather than in the middle which is where the skylarks want to be. Skylarks are very vulnerable to predation as they are ground nesters, and the young scatter from the nest before they can fly and are fed in the ground cover by the adults. Fortunately, in this part of the country moorland is a great stronghold for these birds where there is no ploughing or planting so we see them often in the hills.
A bird that is sometimes confused with the skylark because it looks similar and is found in the same sort of habitat is the meadow pipit.

These birds don't have the hovering song flight of the skylarks . It is smaller than a skylark with a thinner bill, no crest and quite a different flight. The meadow pipet is often seen on perches. It is also a ground nesting bird and is commonly targeted by cuckoos who lay their eggs in the smaller bird's nest.

Diary.
Cold (5 degrees C) all day and overcast.  Great views of a skein of pink footed geese.



Last night's trail cameras reveal a badger in a new location in our bog meadow. I don't know how it got in there as there is a "stock proof" fence around it!








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