Description

The Announcement

Red Canyon | Lander, Wyoming

He had claimed the highest point on the tallest juniper in the canyon and was making sure everyone within a quarter mile knew it. Western meadowlarks don’t sing quietly, and they don’t sing from the ground. They find the best available stage and perform. Bill open, throat working, and that unmistakable yellow chest catching whatever light is available.

Red Canyon sits just outside Lander in a transitional zone where juniper and sage meet sandstone, and in early spring it belongs to the birds before it belongs to anyone else. This was one of those mornings. A meadowlark in the field is rarely an intimate encounter; you hear him before you see him, and when you finally locate him he’s exactly like this: small against the country, perched at the top of something, broadcasting to his audience.

The western meadowlark is the state bird of six western states, including Wyoming, and one of the defining sounds of open country from the Rockies to the Pacific.

Available as a fine art archival paper print or aluminum metal print. Sizes: 8×12 | 16×24 | 24×36 Ships within five business days.