Tag: sturnella neglecta

Too Cold For Meadowlarks?

I’m used to seeing Western Meadowlarks all winter long.  True, their numbers go down as some of them migrate south but there always seems to be a resident population of them here in northern Utah and I typically photograph them year-round.  Not so this winter.    1/3200, f/7.1, ISO 500 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light (techs were set for take-off) This is the last meadowlark I photographed, taken on 28 December, 2012 and it’s been weeks since I’ve even seen one.  Though they’re a permanent resident in my area we’re right on the border between their “permanent resident” and “breeding resident” ranges – see map if you’re interested. I suspect they’ve all vamoosed for warmer climes because of our recent extremes of cold and snow.  If that’s the case, this is one more species I’ll add to my list of birds whose return I’ll anticipate as harbingers of spring. Ron  

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Western Meadowlarks In Snow

Yesterday was a glorious day on the island with about 6″ of fresh snow and wonderful light.  It was simply delightful.  The Western Meadowlarks seemed to be a little “stickier” than usual, perhaps because of all the snow.    1/3200, f/6.3, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light  This one was half buried in the snow but I liked all the convolutions in the snowy setting.      1/3200, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light  This meadowlark was the most cooperative bird of the morning as it posed for me for over 6 minutes on top of some rabbitbrush.      1/2500, f/8, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light  It never did turn around to show that bright yellow breast but it did give me some nice head turns to make up for it.      1/2000, f/7.1, ISO 500, 500 f/4, 1.4 tc, natural light Meadowlarks are well-known for a behavior called “tail flashing”, something they often do during territorial disputes.  During tail flashing the tail is nervously (and very quickly) snapped open and closed, better revealing the white outer tail feathers.  The bird was cooperating so well that I made it my goal to try to catch the tail spread to show those white feathers, which turned out to be much easier said than done.  It happens so quickly that you just have to fire a burst and hope for the best.  I took 208 shots of this bird (at least half of them were attempts to get the open tail) and only got…

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Western Meadowlark Potpourri

On my last post which featured closeups of mating Lark Sparrows, long-time follower of my blog Tana Hunter asked “How about getting this close to some meadowlarks?”   Her request reminded me that I’ve posted very few images of Western Meadowlarks in the 19 months I’ve been blogging so I did a little digging and these images are what I came up with.  It’s another relatively long post but with this weather and its attendant crappy light I can’t be out shooting birds so I might as well be playing around with their images to take some of the sting out of my cabin fever… Here are a few interesting factual tidbits about Western Meadowlarks to hopefully get you in the mood: Although early explorers (including Lewis and Clark) were aware of the existence of the Western Meadowlark, it was subsequently ignored by most naturalists of the day so when John James Audubon gave the bird its Latin name, he chose Sturnella neglecta (the species name in recognition of that lack of attention) The Western Meadowlark is not a lark (though it is a gifted songster); instead it is most closely related to the blackbirds When probing into soil for food, these birds force their long bills into the ground and then the mandibles are spread apart, opening and loosening the soil to make food more obtainable They are particularly fond of sprouting grain in farmers fields.  They bore into the soil with the long bill, grasp the soft germinating seed and then crush it to obtain the milk and usually discard…

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Meadowlark Take-off

Just a single image this time. While photographing magpies at their nest this morning this cheeky Western Meadowlark had the gall to land right next door to the nest for a few seconds before it took off again.    1/2500, f/7.1, ISO 500, f00 f/4 I’d taken the teleconverter off for the larger magpies so it’s a bit of a heftier crop than I’d prefer and I wish I had a little more room up top for composition.  And there’s some “stuff” in front of the bird but despite all that I liked the shot anyway. These meadowlarks are beginning to sing up a storm out on the island. Ron

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