At about 9 am this morning, under a grey cloudy sky, a loose group of about ten Eurasian Skylarks were singing and flying together round and round over the rough grassland on the hill immediately northwest of the new Coombs water-treatment
ponds (35o 18’46”S, 149 o 02’06”E). I watched and listened to them for some 20 minutes. They occasionally dropped down to the ground, in characteristic lark fashion, but soon were up and singing again.
At least I presume they were skylarks; the only similar birds on the ground were two Australasian Pipits.
The song of the flying birds was pretty unmistakable as skylark, although perhaps not as beautiful as I recall for the songs of single male flights in spring. It was nothing like as scratchy or cyclical as the song of the Rufous Songlark
(with which I am familiar), and didn’t resemble the calls of the Brown Songlark or Horsfield’s Bushlark on the Pizzey and Knight app, but none of the latter three species should be in Canberra now anyway.
The flying birds were if anything darker than pipits, with thinner white edges to their tail, and their tail had a concave end (Pizzey and Knight say “slightly forked” but that’s almost an exaggeration).
Would I be safe in concluding Eurasian Skylark? Are they known for autumn group flights?
Steve
