Meadowlarks on the Prairie

 

We are continuing to work our way through the life of Laura Ingalls, and today we reached the following passage in Little House on the Prairie:

“The rising sun was shortening all the shadows.  Hundreds of meadow larks were rising from the prairie, singing higher and higher in the air.  Their songs came down from the great, clear sky like a rain of music.  And all over the land, where the grasses waved and murmured under the wind, thousands of little dickie-birds clung with their tiny claws to the blossoming weeds and sang their thousands of little songs.”

 

(This photo in the public domain)

I would have loved to see an event like this!  Can you imagine that this was a daily occurence for the Ingalls family?  When we lived in Iowa, I felt priviledged to see just a handful of meadowlarks singing in a field. 

Now, it’s no secret that the Western Meadowlark is my favorite North American bird, so I was really glad when Firecracker asked what a lark’s song sounds like.  This is one of those times when I really like having internet at home, because we looked up this website and spent quite a bit of time looking at pictures and listening to the songs of birds that Laura might have seen while she lived on the prairie. 

 Maybe I have two more little ornithologists in the making?