Date: 8/18/26 6:06 pm From: Frank Enders (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Horned larks affected by farming practices
This spring I biked several times along Ridgecrest Road going west from Hedgepeth Road in Halifax County, NC in the early morning.
I was interested how and if the Horned Larks here can get a brood off between various farming operations applied with various crops.
No surprise that larks were not present where a good rye cover crop existed. The 3-4 locations for larks were those mowed down or shortgrass. The one pastured area may have too many grazers to protect either Horned Lark or meadowlark enough to breed successfully.
Seems a shame that bird have to depend on farmers who fail to take good care of their land (as by using cover crops).
The larks seem to have a very iffy existence, needing "wastelands", or lands with less than optimal cropping practices (here most land is in cotton or peanuts or soybeans).
A later morning I may have seen but one Horned Lark. The presence of multiple meadowlarks, specifically in two locations where row crops were not even planted, and/or somebody chose to mow maybe 4 acres, was unexpected, but underlines the incompatibility of the most profitable use cropping open land with "wildlife" , I am not sure I see bird golfers setting aside needed habitats. Clearly it will take lots of money to set land aside, and management by "wildlifers" seems pitifully inadequate.
Horned larks have managed to persist here for 44 years. But, where do they exist I summer when none can be found within several miles (what with the growth of "weeds" in untended land and crops too tall in well-tended land?
(Had a knee problem which prevented getting out more to try to follow the larks.)
Frank Enders, Halifax, NC
I do not have time for e-mail. Nor, I think, do you. Try calling 252-308-3443---good luck with that.
