I returned from Kenya on Tuesday (Dec. 2nd). The change in weather conditions was….notable…to say the least: cold and snow on the ground. On the 3rd I went to my banding site at the York Airport and found 13 Horned Larks in the proximity of a corn pile I had put down 3 weeks before. It was all gone. The birds flew up when I got out of the car but didn’t go far and resettled to watch….it seemed. I put down some more cut corn and as soon as I returned to the car, 8 flew in directly to feed. It was as if they knew that the car and my yellow corn bucket meant food. How did they know? I didn’t have my binos so couldn’t really check them out.
Passing by on the 4th I saw that there were 33 in the immediate area. I was headed into the city and didn’t see any Horned Larks anywhere else. Hmmm. Seems they were concentrated around my site.
Today I took my time. The flock had grown to 62 birds. Again, they flew up when I exited the car but didn’t go far before resettling. I laid down more cut corn and when I returned to the car I grabbed my binos and waited. I didn’t have to wait long. Within 16 seconds of closing the door, they flew in to the corn en masse. A careful search of the birds showed that at least two of them were sporting bands. That’s how they knew. Birds that had been to the site before brought them in. (I’m assuming they were birds I banded.)
I would love to know where our wintering birds nest. My hunch is the Arctic. But, really, it doesn’t matter at this point. A group of Horned Larks carries the York Airport image in their brains and when the bad weather comes they know where they have to go to find food. There’s something magical about that….to me anyway.
Rick