Mar. 31 - ECOPEI annual meeting featuring Gary Schneider with an illustrated 
     
     presentation on the first year at MacPhail Woodlot. Meeting starts at 
     
     7:30 p.m. at Sound Ventures, 310 Queen Street, Charlottetown 
     
    

    
     Mar. 31 - Nest Box Construction Workshop. Contact Rate at 566-9150 for info. 
     
    

    
     Apr. 6 - Dr. Donna Giberson will be The Society's meeting speaker and will be 
     
     offering a presentation on insects. The meeting commences at 7:30 p.m. 
     
    

    
     April 11 - National Wildlife Week 
     
    

    
     Apr. 16 - The Island Nature Trust will hold its 9th Annual Fund Raising Dinner. 
     
     Tickets are 530. Contact Kate MacQuarrie at 566-9150 for information. 
     
    

    
     May 2 to 8 - This is National Forestry Week with the theme of Our Common 
     
     Ground. Contact Ken Mayhew at 368-4707 for information on programs. 
     
    

    
     May 4 - The last Society meeting before the summer break will feature the 
     
     Society's slide contest. The deadline for slide submissions will be 
     
     about a month before the contest. ' 
     
    

    
     May 29 - Birders are encouraged to head for the fields and dales to participate 
     
     in the Bain Birdathon. The counts can be made anywhere in the province. 
     
    

    
     June 5 - 12 - National Environment Week. Watch your local paper for events. 
     
    

    
     June - The Society is considering a field trip to the Magdalena for birding. 
     
     Anyone who would be interested should contact Dan McAskill. The estimated 
     
     cost is unknown at this time. 
     
    

    
     July 22 - 25 - The North Okanagan Club will host the 1993 Canadian Nature 
     
     Federation Conference at Vernon, B.C. The theme will be "From Desert 
     
     Sands to Alpine Slopes". For further information contact the Club 
     
     Secretary at Box 473, Vernon, B.C. V1T 6M4 
     
    
   
   
    
     MEADOWLARKS - EAST VERSES WEST by Jim Edsall 
     
    
   
   
    
     Recent evidence suggests that a significant percentage of the meadowlarks 
     
     found in New Brunswick during winter are, in fact, western meadowlarks. 
     
    

    
     Separating Eastern and Western Meadowlarks in the field presents some 
     
     problems. One of the biggest however is the lack of information in the current 
     
     field guides, all of which state that identification can only be safely made by 
     
     voice. This may be so in summer when Meadowlarks are hard to approach, but 
     
     birds visiting feeders in winter provide the opportunity for close examination, 
     
     at which times the two species can be separated on the basis of plumage 
     
     differences. 
     
    

    
     Generally, Westerns are paler birds lacking the bright colors and 
     
     contrasts of the Eastern. This is a somewhat subjective trait and only of real 
     
     value when the two species are seen together. However, a noticeably pale bird 
     
     could tip you off to a possible Western. 
     
    

    
     The crown stripes and eye line of the Western are brown, finely streaked 
     
     with black. These stripes are black in the Eastern. The light areas of the 
     
     Western's face are pale brown, and show little contrast with the headstripes, 
     
     not like the obvious black and white pattern of the Eastern's face. 
     
    

    
     The yellow of the Western's throat is quite variable but almost always 
     
     extends onto the cheek, occasionally to just below the eye and usually to the 
     
     base of the lower mandible. On the Eastern, the yellow is restricted to the 
     
     throat and its upper limit is sharply delineated by the malar line. (see 
     
     diagram.) On the birds that I have studied, the yellow on the Western was 
     
     duller and more ocherous than the bright yellow of the Eastern. 
     
    

    
     The field mark most visible at any distance is the tail pattern. On the 
     
     Western, this consists of several widely separated stripes of relatively even 
     
     width. In the Eastern, these markings are diamond shaped and continue evenly 
     
     along the quill, creating one large dark marking. . 
     
    

    
     Variability exists in all of these markings but a bird exhibiting all of 
     
     the above mentioned characteristics can be safely identified as a Western 
     
    
   
   
    
     -12-