Sunday 28th April - 5am in the main car park of Sherwood Forest NNR and 10 people had gathered for a dawn chorus walk with Claire Watson, Nottinghamshire County Council ranger, and me.
The early birds singing in the dawn chorus were blackbirds, robins, wrens, and great and blue tits. Blackbirds have a rich, lusty song often with a chuckle at the finish as though they’re pleased with that particular performance. The robin’s is more refined – chamber music rather than the full blown symphony of a wren. The great tit is a persistent schoolchild with its repetitive ‘teacher, teacher’ call and the blue tit has a short trill.
We walked on past the dark looming shapes of ancient oaks, adding more species to the cast of the dawn chorus. Song thrushes were singing their songs of repeated notes - I remember it as a forgetful bird repeating a word to commit it to memory. A pair of Jackdaws looked as though they’d just awoken by their tree hole.
By Major Oak, a chaffinch, willow warbler, blackcap and treecreeper were singing to add to the diversity of sound and the sky was beginning to lighten with a pinkish hue as the sun started to rise behind the trees. The willow warbler has a sweet song that descends down the scale and enchants the birch stands it favours.
In the open forest of Gleadthorpe Open and surrounds, the loud, laughing call of a green woodpecker carried far. The call is referred to as a ‘yaffle’ and if you remember the children’s TV programme ‘Bagpuss’ you’ll know that there was a wooden woodpecker called Professor Yaffle. Professor Green is a rapper – I haven’t yet come across him in the Forest, but who knows, I’ll keep you posted!
The drumming of a great spotted woodpecker was heard and then a bird flew in to near where we were stood, alighting on a small birch tree. The rapid song of a coal tit was followed by a pair of birds chasing each other next to the path. A cuckoo was singing off in the distance, an evocative sound and confirmation of spring. The cuckoo’s song is simple but easy to recognise – it’s singing its name. Another helpful bird in this respect is the chiffchaff, its song a simple rendition of two notes – ‘chiff – chaff’. Sometimes birds like to jazz it up a bit with some extra ‘chiffs’ or ‘chaffs’.To test people’s reactions in seeing a flying bird (and faith in my identification of flight calls), some lesser redpolls and crossbills were flying over giving glimpses above the treetops.
We heard three special species of the forest that prefer the open areas of wood pasture – a habitat of scattered ancient oaks and birches, with the ground underneath kept open grass by grazing with longhorn cattle. A tree pipit was singing its chaffinch-like song with the distinctive finish of a loud ‘zee-zee-zee’, a redstart was singing its short warble close but out of sight and the beautiful song of a woodlark was gracing the skies above. Woodlark is my personal favourite of British bird songs. In this area we also saw a buck roe deer leap through the forest and then walk across the track.Back by the Visitor Centre, a dunnock was singing its scratchy song – it must have had a lie-in as it wasn’t singing on the walk out!
Well worth the effort of getting up early and hearing the forest come alive with bird song.