Mistle thrush song
The weather in January can make for a difficult month if you work outside a lot, and I have to make a real effort to find things that make me feel happy. When I arrive at the reserve in the mornings, I often hear a mistle thrush (MT) singing from the top of a huge Douglas fir in Cae’rberllan woods. For me, the MT’s song is not as clear or as varied as the song thrush’s, nor as tuneful and sweetly voiced as the blackbird’s. Instead, the MT song has a dreamy, far-away, other-wordly feel to it, perhaps because it is sung from such a height and caught by the wind - an alternative English name for MT is “storm cock” due to its habit of singing before and through storms. It is a song that I really have to stop and listen to, to concentrate on - these days you might say “to be mindful of”. It is these moments of mindfulness that make for a manageable January.
Mistle thrushes sing through bad weather, and I am thankful for that.
Neil Groves
Some birds seem to be singing really early this year. I've had song thrush singing like mad for about 2 weeks, and heard a blackbird during yesterday's sunny weather. And a woodpecker has been drumming.