Monday 23 April 2018

An Aural Amble

Two posts from me this week! I'm just back from a short after-work walk (love these longer days) and simply had to share.

I head out of my road, accompanied by the sound of sparrows, chaffinches, a wheezing greenfinch, and blackbirds. Crossing the road and descending the steep hill, bordered by an overgrown hedgerow adjacent to the neighbouring farmland, I hear a white throat call from the depths of the undergrowth and a yellow hammer 'little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese'ing in the distance.

Reaching the Avon Valley Path - which borders the river with its mosaic of habitats - the air really came alive. As well as the blackbirds, shrill wren and chaffinches, climbing over the stile the chorus was suddenly punctuated by a very loud and staccato series of notes - Cetti's warbler singing from the reedbeds. Another warbler was also making its presence felt - the repetitive two-note call of the chiffchaff, with numerous males calling at each other across the valley. The trio of notes from the song thrush, and the alarm call of the robin, were also emanating from the woodland. Finally, the not-quite-so-evocative calls of rooks, wood pigeons and pheasant.

And this was in the course of a 45 minute walk - actually, the first 15 minutes yielded pretty much all of these, and no doubt I missed a few.

No great rarities, but even so, if you know a few calls, it really brings a whole new appreciation to a simple walk. The RSPB website is very handy for checking you've heard what you think you have, so get out there and see how many you can hear in a few minutes!

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