Getting up at 3am to go wandering around a dark, mazy woodland is probably not a lot of people's idea of fun, but that's how I chose to see in this morning.
Today is International Dawn Chorus Day and to celebrate this I lead a walk at Sydenham Hill Wood, organised by Ashley, the Warden. It was a great turn out for such an early start and the birds didn't let us down. Over an hour and a half between 0445 and 0615 we recorded 15 species, which in loose chronological order were:
Robin, Blackbird, Wren, Great Tit, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Woodpigeon, Blue Tit, Song Thrush, Goldcrest, Carrion Crow, Jay*, Ring-necked Parakeet, Great Spotted Woodpecker*, Kestrel*
(*birds we saw but didn't hear)
The dawn chorus, the period as night passes and birds seek to re-establish breeding territories and advertise their presence, is easy to miss in a city like London but undoubtedly one of nature's little treasures.
“...let him betake himself one fine May morning to some green wood with plenty of undergrowth, where the migrant warblers consort and view in harmonies with our resident British songsters. There let him sit and listen, listen till, after their midday feed, the birds’ silent hour brings a temporary interval in the concert. Let him listen again when they resume in fuller voice after refreshment. Listen till dusk rings down the curtain and all but one Great Voice are still.
...let our critic do all these things and drink in the unrehearsed and unscored melodies. Then let him return to ‘civilization’ and tune in his radio set to some ragtime production intended to retail delectation to jaded city dwellers. He may then ask his heart the question, Where does true music dwell – in modish man-made cacophonies or in the ageless cadences of British songbirds?”
(from 'Bird Music' by A.L Turnbull, Faber and Faber, 1953)
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