3 minute read
Wildlife Chris Sperring MBE
The wren and the magic of the dawn chorus
MAY sees the climax of the bird song season and, of course, it’s the breeding season for many species. There’s nothing quite like waking at 3am on an early May morning (downing as many coffees as you can in ten minutes) before venturing out into the darkness. Early, pre-sunrise May mornings can be very chilly, so wrap up warm. It may also be wet, but that’s ok: did you know wet mornings are likely to have louder bird dawn choruses than dry, cold ones?
The simple reason is that cold, frosty mornings will send some birds back into winter mode, so the priority becomes feeding rather than advertising their presence. But on rainy, wet, yet windless, mornings the loudest birds will be thrushes and blackbirds stimulated to sing like it’s a celebration because, of course, the worms are coming to the surface of freshly-wetted soil.
It is still dark, but by 4am you can see beginnings of daylight appearing along the north-east horizon; it starts as a sliver of light that begins to rise higher in the sky almost like someone’s turning the page of a giant book that slowly begins to reveal the next adventure.
Which bird will sing first? When I’m leading dawn chorus walks it’s the obvious question asked by most people but it depends on a few factors, number one of which is where are you in the first place?
So, for example, if you are on the Somerset Levels surrounded by reed beds, then you may find cuckoo or bittern are the first birds you hear, but in your suburban garden then the robin is more likely to be the first to sing.
As the light in the sky increases pre-sunrise it sounds like all the birds are waking and it feels as though someone’s got hold of the bird song volume control and is very gently turning it up.
In wooded environments, blackbirds and song thrush can be heard trying to out-compete each for volume and many other bird species are now joining in as the sky reddens. There’s some warmth creeping into the surrounding air as the sun finally rises, you feel the warmth on your face as the rest of you shivers in the
By CHRIS SPERRING MBE
chill that was night.
The loudest and most varied of bird species now singing is coming from the woodland edge or the scrub layer and from dense hawthorn, blackthorn and bramble a new wave starts. So many birds occupy the scrub layer; linnets, chaffinch and greenfinch all begin their songs as the whole soundscape of birds becomes even louder. Blue tit and the chiming great tit join in, a woodpecker can be heard drumming on a tree; yes, he’s singing as well.
The bird dawn chorus has now become a confusing wall of sound, like an orchestra reaching the climax of its epic piece. But there’s one individual instrument, one bird that when it sings will make this wall of sound come tumbling down. Its colour is brown, it lives in the brown foliage of thick scrub, it’s probably, in your woodland or garden the smallest bird on the block (in the absence of goldcrest), yet its song is loud and piercing with a fast volley of notes delivered at a high pitch. Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the perfect of bird songsters, the one that demands to be noticed… the wren!
I shall be leading an evening and dawn chorus walk for Forestry England on April 29th and 30th. Please visit fb://event/?id=666306224698370 for details. I’m leading a bird song walk (not a dawn chorus, so starting at 10am) at the Community Farm in Chew Magna. For bookings go to https://www.thecommunityfarm.co.uk/events/late-spring-seasonalwalk8
Lastly, the monthly wildlife walk at Hawk and Owl Trust’s Shapwick Moor Nature Reserve will be on Friday, May 6th starting at 10am. For details and booking visit www.hawkandowl.org.uk and don’t forget our Somerset live Barn Owl webcam is live with the female now having laid six eggs; these are due to hatch at the beginning of May.
Farmers and landowners: I’m currently doing land advisory visits in the Mendip area. If you’d like me to visit, please let me know.
Sunrise and the dawn chorus is underway The wren – one of the smallest, but loudest of birds
