I found myself in the garden at 5 o'clock this morning after one of our dogs decided they had to answer the call of nature. This particular dog can't be trusted to go out alone, having the urge as she does to tunnel underneath the decking and then get stuck. So she has to be accompanied which isn't always welcome in the middle on the night... but such are the joys of owning a dog. The dog ambled around the garden in the dim light of early dawn, not in any hurry despite the morning chill. I stood in minimal clothing, wishing I'd put on my dressing gown, shivering and listening to a solitary blackbird singing from a nearby roof top. My early morning contemplation led me to conjecture that this plaintiff call of the blackbird was all that remained of the dawn chorus. In my youth, should I be awake before the sun, I would sometimes open the window and lie in bed listening to the excited cacophony of birds as the dawn broke. Now, standing in the back garden staring up at the dark blue sky, I realised with some sadness that this earnest recital was all that was left of what was once a spectacular celebration of the new day. Two more blackbirds did eventually join the solo performer and a few minutes later I heard a more distant pair of sparrows. But that was it. A production full of hope but slightly underwhelming. As I waited for the dog to wander in, I recalled the days when the dawn chorus was really something to experience. A hullabaloo of bird song, made up of a dozen species or more, each singing with gusto in happy anticipation of another day. Regretfully, I currently reside in suburbia, where birds are few and the desire to find joy in nature is sadly lacking in many of the suburbanites, but I wonder if other parts of the country and indeed other parts of the world still ring with the absolute joy and wonder of the spectacular daily jamboree that is the dawn chorus? So I have decided to ask you. It's not a scientific survey, just a quick question to see if, as I hope, the dawn chorus is still alive and well elsewhere. It's all anonymous but you can add a comment after the post if you like. I'll publish the results in due course. Thanks :) Quick Survey
13 Comments
Caroline Balmer
7/3/2019 03:04:22 pm
I live just outside Worcester probably the first rural home after the suberbs end. We have a fantastic array of birds and the dawn chorus is strong! We also have woodpeckers and a resident Heron.
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CJ Brock.
14/3/2019 09:34:25 pm
To encourage birds,pollinators etc,plant the fauna,and flora,to attract them to your garden,bird boxes,ask neighbors to keep cats indoors,eventually,hopefully,before it is too late,the human race will realise we really need nature to survive.
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7/3/2019 04:09:00 pm
Still lucky to have many birds and so lovely to hear them singing in the trees. Some have visited only once in a while, like Jays and once I saw a woodpecker (red and white with black spots) who had caught his leg in string of a feeder and I had to carry him to a neighbour so that she could unravel the string while I held him. I took him back to the tree and let him go and changed the feeder to a safer one. There has never been a green woodpecker here but I saw them when I lived in south of England as a child. There are less Sparrows and fewer Thrushes but plenty of other assorted birds. My one worry is that in the 38 years here, the swallows have diminished spectacularly. There was often around 200 Swallows and dozens of House Martens on the telephone wires just before they left end of August into September. They usually arrive about April 11th or earlier but the barns are so much quieter now when there are probably 4 - 6 families breeding twice in the season. although there are some in nearby farms too. Sadly the Maltese probably still kill them and weather could also cause losses.
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Amanda Peters
7/3/2019 04:28:14 pm
Not much. Iive near Cardiff City centre. There is some sing but it pales into comparison to the dawn chorus where I grew up.
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7/3/2019 05:19:19 pm
Only just found you, thank goodness someone else cares about this sad plight of birds. I grew up rescuing birds on the coast at Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire and from a family of bird people, who loved the Dawn Chorus. I am an artist and most of mt work involves birds, I feel passionate about their lives and fear what is happening to them
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Jackie Morris
7/3/2019 06:42:40 pm
I am near a busy road but have many trees surrounding me. I have a resident blackbird and a robin serenading in the mornings .. It is a beautiful sound and I wish we had more...
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7/3/2019 07:40:00 pm
The chorus is definitely getting stronger as Spring approaches, but there is singing all year round and my resident Blackbird and Robin are usually first.
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Jackie Feather
8/3/2019 12:53:46 am
We have a wonderful dawn chorus in our regenerating bush valley on Waiheke Island in NZ, mainly because we have active rat and stoat trapping (they eat the native birds' eggs). This valley had been been cleared of native bush for farming when Europeans first arrived but it wasn't viable and the bush has regenerated itself and the bird life returned over the last 60-70 years.
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Kim Prangley
8/3/2019 01:57:07 am
We have quite the chorus in the morning although I must admit its mostly robins and sparrows with a few others thrown in. But OH HOW I LOVE IT!!! I adore waking up to those beautiful sounds. Sometimes in the dead of winter (very long here in Quebec) I will select a youtube video specifically of bird songs in the morning to help me remember there is life beyond winter.
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Margaret Hawkins
9/3/2019 11:03:14 am
There is a lovely early morning song which is getting less through trees being chopped down ,Even so has l live near a canel with trees a mix of birds appear by our apartments has we feed them ,Black bird sings little head of to let us no hear xxxx
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10/3/2019 08:39:10 pm
Now more than ever evensong and dawn chorus . Mostly blackbirds robin sparrows green finch. Ive spent 5years cultivating more birds and this last 12mth have really paid off .im inundated with birds just as we like it
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Linda
10/3/2019 08:39:41 pm
Lovely morning sounds wake me up around 5 am. We are on the edge of Salisbury plain with woods nearby. I have a air of pied wagtails regularly, also blackbirds, robins, goldfinch, chafinch and loads of sparrows and bluetits. I love to feed them and watch.
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18/2/2020 02:38:04 am
Lovely morning sounds wake me up around 5 am.
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