As I posted a few days ago, I saw scores of American pipits mixed in with flocks of hundreds of northern horned larks in extensive Lancaster County fields. Today, January 9, 2017, I ventured again into Lancaster County, Pennsylvania farmland, with particular emphasis on finding birds on manure strips spread on top of fresh, two-inch snow within the last couple of days.
Today, while searching for manure strips, I came upon hundreds of horned larks in a harvested cornfield that was planted to winter rye last autumn. One never sees horned larks so easily and abundantly until after snow covers the fields. The larks were walking about among the green shoots of rye and corn stubble and picking up wind-blown weed and grass seeds, bits of corn exposed by a day of strong winds blowing the snow off certain parts of the field and piling it into drifts along country roadside banks, and tiny pebbles from the soil, and roadsides, to grind the seeds in their stomachs.
Wind helps horned larks find food in snow-covered fields and shelters field mice living in the grass along roadsides. American kestrel falcons have a more difficult time finding and catching those mice when they hide under snow drifts.
Driving along, I came across another field that was swarming with hundreds of horned larks on manure to pick out chewed, but undigested, bits of corn. Unfortunately for me, however, the farmer wasn't done spreading manure on that field and when his big, noisy tractor and manure spreader entered the field to broadcast more livestock waste, the larks all took flight and bounded low over the field, away and out of sight. But they will be back to dine on corn bits when the farmer is done spreading manure on that field.
Moving on a few miles, I happened upon several adjoining fields of mowed alfalfa and harvested corn that were partly blown clean of snow. Yet again, hundreds of horned larks were scattered across those fields, along with scores of European starlings in one big gathering. Although I already knew it, I was once again reminded that there must be many thousands of northern horned larks wintering each year on Lancaster County cropland that had been harvested nearly to the ground.
Looking at the larks on those fields with my 16 power binoculars, I noticed a few, then more, and more snow buntings, down from nesting on the Arctic tundra, were among the larks in those vast, windy fields. The buntings joined the larks in those fields because they, too, are adapted to vast, open environments. Both the larks and the buntings walk about the fields in search of seeds and invertebrates, when the latter food is available. And both species are restless and take flight every few minutes, bounding low across the fields in mixed groups to different spots in the fields. The buntings exhibit more white feathering than the larks do when they are flying.
Northern horned larks, American pipits and snow buntings are all difficult to see, even without the cover of trees and hedgerows and with the aid of binoculars. And none of these species seek shelter by day. They all rely completely on camouflage for safety against predators. The brown and white snow buntings resemble snow-covered, wind-swept fields which are also brown and white mottled. This last grouping of fields I visited today is where a few snowy owls were seen three winters ago. Some winters one or two rough-legged hawks or a merlin might be spotted. And once several years ago, a white phase gyrfalcon was noticed on a lone tree among these same fields. These are all Arctic birds like the pipits, buntings and some of the larks, that seek a similar habitat to winter in. Life is inclined to stay with what it is adapted for and used to.
Merlins and kestrels prey on horned larks and their allies during the day. And red foxes might when those little birds are bedded down among clods of soil and snow drifts for a winter night.
With their camouflaged feathering and ability to fly erratically in flocks in wide open spaces, northern horned larks, American pipits and snow buntings are preadapted to wide open habitats for nesting and wintering. They help make the seemingly barren croplands come to life in winter.
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