A Birdsong Novice

As you already know, as residential volunteers here at Coombes we have a range of jobs and responsibilities around the reserve. However, above all this year as an intern (for me at least) is about opportunities to learn and making the most of those opportunities. It's only mid March and the moth trap is already out nearly every night, there are normally only a handful in there come morning but learning to recognise some of them slowly now will come in handy when there are dozens to look up in the summer. Even if it is impacting Matt’s beauty sleep.

Elephant Hawk Moth by Simon Gray

One of the greatest of these opportunities, recognising birdsong, has actually become more of a challenge, and we couldn’t have a better place to practice. The gauntlet was thrown on our very first day because building our knowledge of birdsong is essential to our work on the reserve. It enables the wardens to keep track of seasonal birds, so when our star species begin nesting in the next few weeks they’ll be able to carry out a head count with much greater accuracy than if they relied on sight alone.

 

While for me, as visitor officer the ability to recognise birdsong is important because I can’t make something as exciting and engaging as possible if I don’t know or understand it. When you come to visit Coombes and I take you on a trail through the trees there won’t be many things which can bring the woods alive more than painting a picture of what surrounds you, just out of sight. The great thing about this ‘challenge’ is that it isn’t work. I am in love with the idea of being able to stand in the woods with my eyes closed and know, through sound alone, what is around me. There is just the small task of learning it!

Redstart by Nigel Blake (RSPB Images)

As a complete novice these first two weeks have been quite frustrating. Matt and I have a CD of songs to ‘revise’ with and the very nice man on the recording deconstructs each song and call before it plays. The deconstruction has been really helpful because it flags up the characteristics of each bird’s song rather than just playing an example recording, which isn’t particularly useful when the range of notes is as vast as a robin or great tit.

 

With most of my time so far being spent in the office I’ve been making sure I have time to walk the young woodland loop and practice before starting work each morning. Last week I was able to begin distinguishing the basics; robin, wren, blue tit, great tit and my greatest achievement yet was when I knew a song thrush was nearby before I saw it in the trees ahead of me.

 

Song Thrush by Steve Brown

The best day was Thursday when there was an oppressive, early morning blanket of heavy mist and any birds singing from more than two or three metres away sounded so ethereal it was like they were from another world. I only wish I’d been able to recognise them!