Meadowlark

Montana’s state bird is the Western Meadowlark, a lovely robin-size bird with yellow underbelly, and striking fashion-statement black “v” on its chest.

My first bird-hunting venture with my father presented me with a rescue of a meadowlark that had been previously wounded by shotgun fire. The bird had lost use of its right leg and wing. I tucked it in my jacket and we brought it home. Hamlet (my young girl’s name for the bird) survived and gifted us with his melodic song for a number of years.

Birds, symbolically, are often seen as messengers between the earth and heaven.

Our friend the meadowlark is a musician of the grassland, its song an amazing series of flutelike notes, which brighten my heart.