Friday February 24th - Western Meadowlark

 

Friday February 24th – Western Meadowlark

          This rare bird turned up in our neck of the woods!  A Western Meadowlark looks almost identical to an Eastern Meadowlark, and are best distinguished by their songs which are very different.  The Western Meadowlark had been seen at Howard Marsh Metropark and the ID was confirmed by its song.  Friday morning, we went to look for it.  The bird was being seen by three big rocks in a meadow just off the main entrance road.  

          We parked the car there and waited for about 10 minutes until the meadowlark showed up.  It perched fairly close to us, and we could hear it singing its western song.  The Western Meadowlark is rare in Ohio but is common in the western United States.  This is another bird that we that we did not see last year.  As a matter of fact, we have only seen it two other times in Ohio.

                                           Western Meadowlark

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