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The birds...
Apr. 13th, 2004 11:08 amOne of the best things about camping in Yorkshire was hearing the curlews calling - their bubbling cry is such an evocative sound. Because it’s the breeding season they kept going most of the night - one night I crawled out of the tent at 2 a.m. to a light frost glittering on the field and the curlews calling under a full moon. Stunning.
Other things I heard in the night were oystercatchers and owls (Tawny and Little).
Woke early yesterday so took my cup of tea out onto the porch to listen to the dawn chorus. All common garden birds, but wonderful - blackbirds, song thrushes, robins, dunnocks, and the trill of an early-rising greenfinch. As the blackbirds tone down, the woodpigeons and collared doves start up - for me the real sound of a British summer. Then gradually the later birds begin to call - chaffinches, greenfinches, great and blue tits, and finally starlings.
And now at last we have the first of the summer migrants. I’ve been hearing chiff chaffs on my morning runs for a couple of weeks, and on Sunday morning I saw my first swallow (it did look like it was wondering if it had made a mistake, though, given it was still only three degrees above freezing at the time...).
Other things I heard in the night were oystercatchers and owls (Tawny and Little).
Woke early yesterday so took my cup of tea out onto the porch to listen to the dawn chorus. All common garden birds, but wonderful - blackbirds, song thrushes, robins, dunnocks, and the trill of an early-rising greenfinch. As the blackbirds tone down, the woodpigeons and collared doves start up - for me the real sound of a British summer. Then gradually the later birds begin to call - chaffinches, greenfinches, great and blue tits, and finally starlings.
And now at last we have the first of the summer migrants. I’ve been hearing chiff chaffs on my morning runs for a couple of weeks, and on Sunday morning I saw my first swallow (it did look like it was wondering if it had made a mistake, though, given it was still only three degrees above freezing at the time...).
