The Howland
Picture Pages: Horned Lark The Howland
Picture Pages: Horned LarkPage by Royce
Last update: $Date: 2004/03/05 01:39:35 $ (UTC)
The Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) is a bit uncommon in our home town of Calgary, mostly passing through during migrations to or from the north. They are much more common through-out most of the U.S., all year round. Quite a number of races of Horned Larks are recognized, based on variation in plumage and migratory behavior. When seen, they are typically foraging in open fields in flocks, possibly mixed in with other species such as Snow Buntings.
From a distance, these Larks -- especially the females and juveniles -- appear to be just another bunch of LBJ's (Little Brown Jobbies). But if you can zero in on a male, closer examination brings out delightful details including the yellow throat, black cheeks and bib, small black "horns", and white outer tail feathers. Shoulder feathers may have rusty-pink coloration. If you are out in a field and suspect there are Larks present, stop and listen -- you might be able to identify them by sound before you can see them. In any event, these are active birds and it won't be long before you spot them moving low along the ground.
Resources where you can find out more:
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Visiting Denver, especially during winter months, affords us some good bird-watching opportunities the likes of which we would not enjoy in our home area of Calgary. Quite often in our part of metro Denver, which is southwest in Englewood, we don't have to venture far at all to have some nice sightings. For example, close by the office location there is a large empty, grassy field with a small creek and reedy area running through one end of it. Further along the creek is one of my favorite walking and bird-watching spots near the office, but I had not been into this field before on previous trips. In January 2004, I began checking it out. The field is surrounded on all sides by road, and is roughly squarish, perhaps half a kilometer to a side. On one side there is active road construction going on as of this writing (part of the gigantic Denver "T-Rex" project no doubt). The field interior is also somewhat impacted by the construction work, with evidence of heavy equipment moving through it and so on. Given all of this, one might think there would be little to be seen. However, I have learned that I'll rarely fail to see something interesting when I spend a few minutes in this field with a scope. Species spotted in just a few outings range from American Tree Sparrows and House Finches, through Canada Geese, Northern Flickers and Say's Phoebes, to raptors such as American Kestrels, Prairie Falcons and Red-tailed Hawks. One Saturday morning, January 24, 2004, I got up early and went to the field looking for a pair of Red-tailed Hawks that I had often seen in the area the previous two weeks. While I was getting myself set up, a flock of perhaps 30 Horned Larks flew into my immediate vicinity and began foraging through the scrubby grass. I could hear them plainly all around, but despite the relatively sparse ground cover, spotting them was a challenge. See this photo for an example of what I mean. The Horned Larks blended in quite well with the brown earth and grass, as sparse as it was. 30 of the birds sounds like a big number, but they spread out a bit and mostly stayed low within the grass, foraging for seeds along the ground. If one was unfortunate or impatient, this sort of view might be the best one gets of a Lark. Fortunately a bit of patience will pay off, as they often pop into the open. This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup from about 50 meters away from the Lark. I adjusted the image in Photoshop Elements 2.0 using auto color and auto contrast.
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After some persistence, I began to reliably pick out a few individuals from the ground clutter. I proceeded to get some good watching and photo opportunities as the birds perched on sticks or small dirt mounds, in between foraging periods. A few perches soon became evident as favorites, to which some individuals returned repeatedly. So I staked them out with camera at the ready, and got some decent shots. This photo is an example of the closest shots I was able to get. This Horned Lark liked to perch and sing -- on a stick, on this dirt clod, on that small mound. At one point it flew to a pile of dirt within about 7 meters of my position and started cheeping away. That is when I got this and the next few photos. This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup. I adjusted the image in Photoshop Elements 2.0 using auto color and auto contrast since the original had a strong yellowish color cast. This was in addition to the minor adjustments I typically make in ThumbsPlus, including "digital camera cleanup" (mostly small contrast and saturation boosts), and unsharp mask gaussian.
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Even given the intruding blade of grass, this is one of my favorite shots of the Horned Larks. As much twittering as they were doing, I actually caught them singing in very few images. Like they say in comedy -- timing is everything. This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup, with the same distance and location as the previous photo. Adjustments also were as in the previous photo.
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This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup, with the same distance and location as the previous photo. Adjustments also were as in the previous photo.
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This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup, still with the Lark at a distance of around 7 meters although I had moved my position slightly to the left to escape the intruding blade of grass visible in the previous photos. Image adjustments also were as in the previous photo.
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This is one of the last shots I took, with the above Horned Lark sitting atop another favored perch -- a stick hammered into the soil by the construction workers. Very soon, the flock having worked this field over pretty well, they flew off no doubt to a neighboring field to repeat the whole process. The twittering Larks now gone, I returned to looking for the Red-tailed Hawks, which conveniently arrived not long afterwards. This photo was taken with a digiscoping setup, at a distance of about 15 meters.
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