In our town, where there are Bobolinks, there usually are Meadowlarks…

…and the High Meadow at Voice of America (VOA) Park was no exception. After I had calmed down a bit over the beautiful music of the Bobolinks (click here for the Bobolink post), I started paying attention to the calls of the Eastern Meadowlarks. I waited for their pretty little song, but they were more intent on issuing that buzzy, harsh call instead. There were three males calling nonstop from different posts in the surrounding fields, sometimes staying very close to a female. This male was especially vocal and would fly between his post in the field and the top of a tree by the gravel road.



Beak Bit
Unlike Bobolinks who are long-distance migrants and make VOA their home only from April through October, Eastern Meadowlarks are short-distance migrants and can be found year-round at the park. But the birds you see perched amid falling snowflakes in the winter may not be the same birds braving the heat in the summer. Many of our wintering meadowlarks will migrate further north for the breeding season and will be replaced by more southern birds completing their short-distance migration.