SKYLARKS could be heard singing occasionally last month, but now they have started singing more regularly over the moors and above cornfields. They face the wind, often very high in the sky, and fly slowly forward, or simply hover motionless, riding on the wind. From the speck in the sky there pours down a stream of sweet and trilling notes. The lark is laying claim to a territory far down on the earth below it, where in due course it will nest. If a rival comes along, the birds will drop down and there will be a chase just above the ground.
Over heathland with a few scattered trees, especially in the southwest of England and in East Anglia, another lark, the woodlark, is also singing now. It does not hover, but circles round in the sky, and has one of the most beautiful songs of all British birds, full of sweet, fluting “lu-lul-lu” notes. When it comes down it will often perch on a branch in a tree, sometimes even singing there, and can be seen to be shorter than the skylark, with a little, square-ended tail. After experiencing a severe fall in numbers, woodlarks are slowly becoming more common again.
DJM