I’ll confess as my alarm began blaring at 5 am on Sunday morning I did wake up in a very confused state of mind. As someone only recently out of her student days, 5 am still seemed like the middle of the night (which begins at about 3 am and lasts through to about 11 am!). But it appears I was mistaken; the sun was rising and the dawn chorus was in full swing – hardly the middle of the night!
Arriving at the visitor centre, the kettle was on and tea-making in progress before the public began turning up from about 6.30 am. We had a fantastic turn out for the dawn chorus walk – around 25 early rising visitors and a handful of staff and volunteers in total. Shortly after everyone arrived, we set off onto the reserve to have a look and a listen to what birds were about.
In total we saw or heard 50 species, which we were pretty happy about given the weather wasn’t ideal (wind whistling in your ears makes it hard to hear birdsong). The highlight for me was probably a very obliging willow warbler, who was perched in the tree tops, warbling away despite being blow around by the wind. Other species seen/heard include whitethroat, yellowhammer, blackcap, mistle thrush and skylark in addition to many others!
Willow warbler - John Bridges (rspb-images.com)
After our lengthy walk, we returned to the visitor centre to warm up with a much needed hot drink! I thoroughly enjoyed the morning and learnt a lot; it was definitely worth getting up at the crack of dawn for!
Oystercatchers at dawn (taken at RSPB Dungeness, Kent) - Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)