Good for a lark

Which brings us to the Horned Lark. Some of the later birds on this list I haven’t seen in years and am not at all surprised to see on this list. However, I see horned larks every year. They hang out in the onion fields just north of Point Pelee. They can be found in mixed flocks with snow buntings in the winter just to the east and west of the city (and probably in the city, too, if I knew where to look).

According to my shiny new atlas, they probably didn’t breed in southern Ontario before the arrival in North America of the White Man. Horned larks breed in fallow fields and open areas. While they breed in the high arctic, they also can be found throughout much of the farmland of the continent. So, their numbers have always been high. But, with modern fertilizers, there is no need to let fields lie fallow for a year. Or, fields will be left for a short time (allowing the larks to start a family) and then the fields will be plowed, before the fledglings can fend for themselves.

Another cause of their demise is unproductive marginal farmland being returned to forests, which are too dense for the larks. Still, in the last four decades the horned lark population has dropped by 56%. And as there are still more than 70 million of them in North America, I don’t think they risk being added to the Endangered Species List any time soon.