Standing up for Nature
Across the world, people are experiencing a shared concern for themselves and their loved ones and many are enduring a period of social distancing and being cut off from wildlife. But, also, many are discovering nature around them in ways that are giving them delight and solace. Humankind has never had this experience before. There…
Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler are a little bit like Blackcap and Garden Warbler – not that they look like those species, or sound like those species, but that they are similar to each other in song and one (in this case the Sedge Warbler) usually gets back to the UK a good week or…
Today is Cambridgeshire Bird Club’s Easter Monday lockdown bird race. Objective, 12 hours of recording from your home, with up to one hour allowed out, on foot. Our house being not in the least competitive (2 birders – oh Ok, we are…) we have different lists and different strategies for this. I started with my…
I was relieved to find that Tim Melling (whose images grace these ‘song’ blogs) had photographed a Garden Warbler because not many photographers bother with this species; as Tim writes, its ‘distinguishing feature is that it has no distinguishing features’. The specific name borin apparently comes from a belief that this bird had a lot…
The Black Redstart is a common breeding bird in much of continental Europe and it often nests in towns and villages. It, like the more familiar Common Redstart, is a hole-nester. Common Redstarts nest in holes in trees whereas Black Redstarts often nest in holes in building and walls. In the UK Black Redstarts are…
Starlings are wonderful birds – take a look at one and they just look superb. But they sing too, often while waving their wings in a motion similar to a butterfly-stroke swimmer. Can you sing and wave your arms about? Maybe, now try it perched on a telephone wire! It’s a strange song, in some…
Surely you know what a Cuckoo sounds like? But how often do you hear them these days, I wonder? They are much rare now, particularly in southern England and I hear them less often than formerly. I’ve only once heard a Cuckoo from my garden and that was in May 2014. Maybe I’m in with…
The Willow Warbler looks very much like a Chiffchaff – they can be a bit tricky to tell apart at times, and are closely related species, but their songs are completely and utterly different. Whereas the Chiffchaff’s song is simple and cuts through the early Spring air like a knife, the Willow Warbler has a…
Here are three Great Tit songs (from the excellent xenocanto website). I’ve chosen Great Tit because I like Great Tits but also because their songs are quite simple. But these three songs not only sound different but, when displayed in the accompanying sonograms, they also look different. Have a listen and a look. The sonograms…
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