The Skylark

‘Up springs the Lark,

Shrill-voiced and loud, the messenger of morn.

Ere yet the shadows fly, he, mounted, sings

Amid the dawning clouds, and from their haunts

Calls up the tuneful nations’.

The song of the Skylark is so exuberant and uplifting to our ears that it is not surprising that poets have been moved to write about it over the centuries. It is a bird of open country and never perches on trees. To make sure his song is heard, the male Skylark flies high into the sky and sings an exhilarating song which can continue without a break for many minutes. With the increase of intensive agriculture, especially the fertilising of grassland and the switch to winter-sown cereals, the Skylark has disappeared from many parts of lowland Tipperary. It is still found breeding in areas of rough grazing, bogs and upland areas.

In the autumn the Skylarks leave the upland areas and move down to more fertile farmland. Large flocks can be found on stubble fields in October. These flocks may contain migrants from Scotland or the Continent. These birds probably move on and it is not known whether our breeding birds leave the country for the winter. The origin of Skylarks in stubble fields in winter in this part of the country is unknown. It is possible the all the females move further south in hard weather and that the males remain near their breeding grounds. It is possible to solve these puzzles by trapping the birds and making them with an individually numbered aluminium ring on one of their legs. The hard part is actually catching these birds. Because they remain in open country, they do not fly into mist nets readily and they are usually shy of any kind of trap.

Many people have difficulty in identifying the Skylark. They appear to be similar to the Meadow Pipit which is very common and widespread. The Skylark is bigger than the Meadow Pipit and has noticeably longer wings. In flight, the call of the Meadow Pipit sounds like “pit, pit, pit”, whereas the Skylark’s call sounds like “zirrup”. In the summer time, they both sing while high in the air. On the way back down, the Meadow Pipit falls like a paper plane while the Skylark drops straight down to earth.