Dawn Chorus Day

From early spring, the woodland at Watatunga comes alive with early morning bird song and it is a magical place to be as the sun rises.  Lockdown gave me the time and desire to improve my knowledge of birdsong, and better identify who sang what and how.

I’ve tried a few apps with some success, but never really felt confident beyond the bossy Great tit or wood pigeon.  And so, when conservationist Nick Acheson visited the reserve early this year, I pondered whether a dawn chorus tour might work.

Nick is a wildlife expert and has a long track record of connecting people to nature.   According to Nick, “Learning birdsong is not a matter of factual description; it is a matter of feeling… Once you have connected with that feeling, you will never forget the bird behind the song.”

The expertise was there, the birds were there, but how to get the listeners there?  You see, the woodland at Watatunga is home to some of the world’s most endangered deer and antelope species and, while they’re generally docile and easily managed, they are still classed as Dangerous Wild Animals, and none of our team, let alone the public, walk amongst them, especialy not in the woodland where there is more chance of surprising one of them and giving them a fright.

And so, Nick very gamely agreed to trial a dawn chorus trailer tour with any of our team who might be interested.  A 5.00 a.m. start and a rather damp May morning – amazingly, we had to bring the large trailer as so many were keen.

We trundled off and Nick began to point out the direction of song and then to help us log it – to fully understand the humour and delight of his ‘hooks’, it’s worth looking back at our video of Nick immitating a song thrush, “song thrush repeats one phrase four or five times and then says something else and then shouts it really loudly, so Carl, Carl, Carl Carl Norma Norma Norma Jennifer Jennifer Jennifer Jennifer Bob Bob Bob Bob Carl Carl and is very distinctive once you know it.” You won’t believe how many times I’ve found myself nodding to the trees and muttering “Norma Norma Norma” since then!

We wended through the woodland, likening wrens to Rossini and distinuishing them from robins, seeing different woodpeckers, learning greenfinch calls, sussing great tits from chiffchaffs.  Picking up the calls became easier as we went but beyond that we were all enthused by Nick’s passion and inspired by the depth of his knowledge.

“It was extremey interesting and helpful to have someone ‘cleverly’ explaining the differences between the calls.  Having the descriptive ‘hooks’really helped identify specific songs.  I have often just stopped and taken in the dawn chorus but have struggled to identify the majority of songs, but Nick certainly helped with this.”

We finished up with breakfast in the BBQ hut and lots of chatter about what we had learnt.  Next year this is something we hope to offer as two morning events and we would love you to set your alarms to see you there!