Western Meadowlark, Charlotte, VT, June 2015

Western Meadowlark – first record for VT!  Yet another amazing find in a string of exceptionally rare birds found in VT over the last couple years that have included species like Prairie Falcon, Garganey, Pink-footed Goose, Black-tailed Godwit, etc.  I haven’t chased after any of those recent birds because they were all in northwestern VT, much farther than my self-imposed chasing limit of a 2-hour drive from home.  But for some reason I decided to chase after this one.

The Meadowlark was first discovered on a Wednesday singing as if on territory in a field in Charlotte.  I was out of town at the time, and wouldn’t be able to give it a try until Saturday.  But I was hopeful that although not discovered until mid-June, it might well have been present since Spring looking for a mate.  And if that was the case, it would likely stick around for at least a couple more days.  Sure enough it was heard and seen by many both Thursday and Friday, so I was quite optimistic.  I called Denny Abbott and we made plans to make the long drive to northwestern VT early Saturday.

That morning while on our 3 ½ hour trek Denny and I spent a fair amount of time listening to the songs of the 2 Meadowlarks, to make sure we could tell the 2 species apart when we got to Charlotte.  We were very well prepared when we approached the field in question, and we could see a small group of birders already there.  Although the small parking area was full, one car appeared to be ready to back out when we arrived.  I lowered the window to ask the driver if he was leaving, and before my car had even stopped I heard the Western Meadowlark’s song.  That was easy!  Over the next hour we had almost continuous scope views of the bird as it sang from a pole in the middle of the field.  I tried to get phonescoped pictures of the Meadowlark, but it was far enough away that this was the best I could do.

Western Meadowlark was number 270 for my VT list, which is by far my smallest of all my New England lists.  Though undoubtedly I’d have a lot more in VT if I had chased after all those great birds that have been seen there lately. 

Western Meadowlark was also the 430th species I’ve seen anywhere in New England.  VT is the first state where I’ve seen this species as a rarity after seeing it throughout its normal range (see my statebird map below).