Birdsong

After April achieved 30 whole posts, May is looking a little lonesome with only one so far. So here is the song of the Western Meadowlark, a bird whose song I've often mentioned and who may continue to play a minor role here. (That was a bit more alliteration than I intended!)

I fell in love with this bird the first spring I lived in Idaho. I lived in the country, next to the school where I taught and walked across the field to work every morning. This largish bird seemed to like to perch high above all else while singing its song, and I especially liked it when it chose the telephone wire that I walked near. I would try to walk gently past, not looking up at it to much for fear of frightening it away, but listening with all my might.
I'm glad to again be living in a home near Western Meadowlark habitat, but I fear these days may be numbered as they are preparing to build a bunch homes there. Sadness.
A couple of notes about the video. The lady who submitted it to YouTube said she dropped her video camera, that's why there's a big bump near the beginning. It was also interesting doing a search for meadowlark song--though the bird in this video is in Canada, it sounds most like "my birds". There were videos of birds in Colorado and Arizona who had a slightly different song and the Eastern Meadowlark seemed to have a different sound altogether. I'd heard that research has been done proving crows living in different parts of the country have different accents and it was very interesting hearing how meadowlark songs also seem to have this quality.