Wildlife Chris Sperring MBE

Sorry about the dustbin lid . . .

IT was New Year’s Day 1970 and my parents had bought me a huge, yet at the time, “portable” tape recorder for Christmas. I could barely lift it, yet I would use this recorder to go out and record the sounds of nature and, in particular, birds. The microphone that came with the recorder was, by today’s standard, pretty poor quality, yet I had a trick up my sleeve to improve it. Recording nature sounds was as big a thing 50 years ago as taking pictures of nature is today.

The trick with the microphone was to find a way of forcing the sound of the bird calling in front of me to become amplified and more directional; the problem was that a bird making a sound would be mixed in with other sounds all around the microphone making it uni-directional.

The bird I was trying to record could therefore be lost to the surround sound of everything else. I had read about the parabolic reflector meaning, of course, a reflective surface that would channel sound into the microphone. These could be bought but were as expensive as a telephoto lens of today so I made one, using a metal surface in the shape of my parents’ metal dustbin lid!

I hit the lid with a big hammer to make it even more coneshaped and drilled a hole in the middle for the microphone to be attached. It worked brilliantly and I proudly left my parents’ house and began to record nature.

I remember well that first trip out recording and the very first bird I recorded was a great tit (both contact calls and full song). Song thrush and mistle thrush followed and also the flight calls of mixed finches; in particular greenfinches, which were seemingly everywhere in the 1970s.

Now at the end of 2021 armed with a powerful yet readily available iPhone that records incredible quality sound and doesn’t need a parabolic reflector, I did exactly the same walk. Whilst the area I walked was still green lanes, hedges and small woodland, the once open farmland that surrounded this area is now houses and busy roads.

I walked for roughly the same time as I did 51 years previously with only a few weeks’ difference, the weather was almost identical being mild overcast and damp but not raining.

By CHRIS SPERRING MBE

Now it’s possible the next bit may seem very gloomy, because in 2021 the song and mistle thrush had long gone from this area. Also, not a single finch was recorded, the once common greenfinches were silent by their absence, blackbirds were still present as was that first bird recorded back in 1970, the great tit, but even these were hard to record as their lower numbers reduced their need to make sound.

I did hear a thin single note from a long-tailed tit, then another, and suddenly a whole group of them appeared in front of me; interestingly these birds didn’t figure in my walk at all in 1970. Neither did the next bird, a collared dove and, much to my delight on this walk, I recorded not one, but three wrens in full song: neither did I recall them from my original walk.

All of this, of course, is what I would call snapshot observations, same place almost same time and whilst a snapshot may give us some indications of what’s going on, it’s detailed continual observations, with detailed notes taken every day for many years, that begins to reveal real trends taking place.

A quarter of the UK’s birds are now on what’s called The Birds of Conservation Concern (BCC) red list, meaning a 50% or more decline. A lot of these birds were so common in my youth, yet so scarce now, whilst a small yet interesting group of other birds were so scarce in my youth, and seemingly more available to be observed today.

I’m often reminded how gloom and doom appears to be the message constantly pushed by we conservationists leaving many people feeling helpless. But as I point out, there are some species doing better than 50 years ago but it’s a fact that there is an increasing and worryingly long list of those not doing so well.

These problems/issues (call them whatever you want), are solvable; we have the knowledge and the passion and the will to constantly learn and adapt to new ways and ideas based on good solid long-term science.

The difference that needs to be made for real ground-up action for nature to thrive and survive begins and ends with you and you within your own communities.

Have a great 2022! l PS. I know it’s 50 years late, but sorry about the dustbin lid, mum.

Song thrushes appear to have disappeared from the area where I live A wren – not so common half a century ago?