By Ken M. Blomberg

I took a ride to find a Meadowlark. And if I found a bobolink, so much the better.

Around our back 40 prairie grass field, I found doves perched on the power line, swallows cruising for airborne insects, bluebirds tending their birdhouse bound youngsters and a little green heron landing on the pond. Looking for a Meadowlark I found monarch butterflies, dragonflies, Hummingbirds and wildflowers. But, no Meadowlarks.

Across the road I spotted deer, turkey and doves tending the neighbor’s tilled field and grassy lowland swale. But, no meadowlarks. Driving west towards Marshfield and along the southern border of the massive Mead wildlife area, I kept an eye open for the telltale flush of roadside Meadowlarks. The usual suspects were there, including Robins, Blackbirds and Grackles. Perhaps a detour to the north into Mead’s 33,000 acres of wetlands, forests and grasslands would have done the trick. But other obligations kept me on schedule along its southern border that day – and alas, no Meadowlarks.

A few days later, my trusty English cocker Buster and I went trout fishing south of Plover on the cold water ditches that bisect the 12,700 acre Buena Vista grasslands. Surely we’d spot a Meadowlark or two there. The fishing turned out to be fruitless, as extreme water flow due to back to back downpours made fishing problematic. Instead, we cruised the unpaved dirt and gravel roads that crisscross the extensive prairie.

Ken Blomberg Photo

Much to my delight I soon observed a family of Bobolinks. Five flushed from near the shoulder of the road and skipped from one prairie plant to another. I slowed to a halt and watched them frolicking in the grass. Larger than a House Sparrow, males are largely black with telltale white rumps and backs. I turned east, then north and east once again and was rewarded with Bobolink families at every turn. I cannot remember over the past 46 years of looking, that many Bobolinks on the Buena Vista.

But, what about Meadowlarks you ask? It was at turn two that I eyed a pair of those Robin-sized birds. Brown-streaked with breast bright yellow crossed by a black “V”, their short, fluttering flight came in spurts. That was my clue. My Meadowlarks appeared!

Why the shortage of these grassland birds? Once so common, I never wondered. Maybe you know where they abound. Ground nesters in grassland and meadows, I fear their numbers and nests are victims to early haying these days of troubling weather patterns. Fragmentation of connecting grasslands across central Wisconsin may be a contributing factor.

I found a pair of Meadowlarks on a recent summer day. I hope my observations are purely anecdotal – an exception, not the rule. I must return to the Mead, Paul

Olson grasslands near Rudolph and the Buena Vista for more enlightenment.

I miss their clear, mellow whistle, see-you, see-yeeeer!