Nightingale by Chris & Juliet Moore
A watch of nightingales
You arrive at Pulborough Brooks and it is pitch black. All you can see are the stars and all you can hear is the sound of the Nightingale. And the sound is incredible, for both its variety and its volume. You can hear clear piping notes, musical phrases, frog-like croaks and a section that sounds reminiscent of gunfire – all coming from a brown bird about the size of a Robin.
As the sun rises, other voices gradually add to the choir; the mellow Blackbird, the gossiping Goldfinch, the helpful Chiffchaff who sings his own name. But is the Nightingale who is the virtuoso.
Whilst they will sing during the day, there is something magical about hearing them at night-time. There are several explanations for the nocturnal singing; the air is cooler and denser and sound travels further and there is less competition from other birds and other noises. The Nightingale also migrates during the night – a male singing throughout the night is more likely to attract a female who is flying over.
As spring progresses and partnerships formed, the male birds will stop singing throughout the night. They will still perform at dawn and at dusk to remind any possible rivals that it is still their territory. If you do hear a Nightingale singing throughout the night towards the end of May, it is likely that he is a batchelor!
One of our most eagerly anticipated arrivals each spring, these amazing songsters undergo a long and arduous journey to get here, before competing for a territory and a mate, and then raising a family.
The Nightingale is revered for its night-time singing and has been celebrated in poems, songs and fairy tales. In Hans Christian Anderson’s tale, the song of the Nightingale saves the Emperor of China from death. In Oscar Wilde’s tale ‘The nightingale and the rose’ the Nightingale sings all night to produce a red rose for a poor student to present to his beloved. (It does not end well for the Nightingale, the student or love in general!).
Interestingly, in both tales the Nightingale that sings is female – in reality it is the male!
Nightingales in trouble
Sadly, fewer and fewer people hear Nightingales each year. In the 2015 report ‘Birds of Conservation Concern 4’ (BoCC) Nightingales were added to the Red list. They showed a decline in the breeding population of 60% over the past 25 years (and a staggering 85% since the first BoCC review started in 1969) and also in the breeding range, with a 43% drop in the number of occupied 10km squares over the past 40 years. They share this fate with many of the migratory birds who come to the UK to breed.
We’re only just beginning to understand the incredible journey a Nightingale makes each year, and the dangers they face on the way. Saving Nightingales will mean tackling the dangers they face on their travels, protecting their winter feeding grounds, and creating and safeguarding their breeding habitat here. Threats to their breeding habitat include habitat loss, lack of (or changes to) woodland and scrub management and the impact of browsing deer.
Tracking using geolocator tags (conducted by the BTO) showed that Nightingales tend to be site-faithful - one of the tagged birds was recaptured just 50 yards from where it was tagged the year before – what incredible navigation skills! It also emphasizes the need to protect our finest sites and ensure that the well travelled Nightingales have homes to return to each spring.
Our first Nightingale of the year was confirmed yesterday (Sunday 9 April) when it was heard 'croaking' along 'Adder Alley'. Today, one has been heard singing from Fattengates courtyard.
Giving nightingales a home at Pulborough Brooks
When the RSPB came to Pulborough Brooks in 1989 you would have been very unlikely to have heard a Nightingale here. 25 years on and we now support between 7 and 10 territories most years. They are not here by lucky accident; we’ve created and now manage the habitat with Nightingales in mind - all of the ‘scruffy’ bits, dense patches of bramble and blackthorn thickets, are actually very carefully cultivated!
Scrub and woodland habitats needs to be managed on a regular basis as they change rapidly. As the trees get older they start to shade out the plants underneath them, leaving the ground layer too open for some of our scrub-nesting birds such as the Nightingales. We manage our 'Nightingale hotspots' in rotation, pollarding some of the trees and layering and hedge-laying other shrubs and trees. This helps to produce the habitat that is required by Nightingales and other scrub warblers – young trees with perches to sing from with plenty of dense cover underneath to nest in and in which to forage for food.