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…
Category: VERY BIRDY: birdwatching and birding nattering
Bird song (23) – Garden Warbler
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…
Bird song (22) – Black Redstart
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…
Bird song (21) – Starling
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…
Bird song (20) – Cuckoo
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…
Bird song (19) – Willow Warbler
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…
Bird song (18) – the pictures
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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…
Blast from the past
Sent from a readr of this blog.
Bird song (17) – Blackcap
There was a Blackcap in our garden through December and into early-March – in fact, my last record was of one singing on Tuesday 10 March (just as I was was packing the car to go to the races). I’d never previously heard a Blackcap sing in our garden in March (or through the winter)…
Bird song (16) – Skylark
Hail to the Skylark – one of the finest songsters of all? Don’t you agree? You won’t find this species very often in your garden but if you live near farmland you may hear its song cascading over everything. This is a pretty unmistakable song – it goes on for ages, it’s loud, it’s musical…