As a bloke, I have been told, just once or twice, that I don't listen. And that's a bit of a problem for a birdwatcher as many first records of species come by ear rather than eye.
It's a well known fact that as one ages one's hearing can become a bit dodgy - I said ONE'S HEARING CAN BECOME A BIT DODGY!!
The thin high-pitched tweets of goldcrests and treecreepers become more difficult to hear. I know of birders who have lost the ability to hear cuckoos too. And someone helping a research project by recording corn bunting songs was so hard of hearing that he had to turn on the tape-recorder when he saw the birds' beaks opening (resulting in a lot of useless recordings of birds recorded mid-song!).
An experience the summer before last made me think I was joining this group. I was out with my daughter and she asked me what that buzzing sound was - I said it was just traffic noise. A bit later she asked me again, and wondered whether it was the buzzing of an electric fence - I couldn't hear any buzzing! A little further on and she asked me whether I could hear a buzzing noise - I couldn't. And then she pointed to a grasshopper at my feet and asked whether I could hear that - I couldn't, even though I am told that it was really loud. Those frequencies seemed to have dropped out of my repertoire completely.
Since then I have been wondering what else I am not hearing. I can hear goldcrests - at least sometimes - maybe I am missing lots of them. How would I know?
And since then I haven't heard any grasshopper warblers - and their reeling song is very much like the buzz of a grasshopper or cricket. Those people who named them weren't daft! And I do remember being with some birders who all claimed to hear a 'gropper' when I wasn't at all sure. So is the lack of grasshopper warblers in my life due to a decline in my hearing or in their population?
Well, this weekend produced a partial answer. I heard grasshopper warbler well at Stanwick Lakes on Saturday - and it was quite distant when I first noticed it. And at another Northamptonshire birding spot, Summer Leys, I heard at least two grasshopper warblers on Sunday morning! Yippee! I can hear! It's something of a relief.
Of course, although I can hear it doesn't mean that I listen!
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Analin - they are truly brilliant. My first blog talked about nightingales and I'll be going back to that wood to listen for them again soon. They are simply amazing songsters.
Hello Mark! My ears certainly weren't deceiving me at the weekend. On a family visit to Lincolnshire we went to Whisby Nature Reserve and we heard a nightingale at close quarters. We couldn't see it but there was no doubt as to what it was. Brilliant!