International Dawn Chorus Day takes place this Sunday, May 5, 2013. According to the dedicated website, the day is a celebration of “nature’s daily miracle” where all types of birds sing at the start of a new day. The first International Dawn Chorus Day was held by the Urban Wildlife Trust in Birmingham in 1984. Since then, the day has grown in notoriety, and each year more events are scheduled to mark the occasion. The commemoration encourages people to get up early, or stay up late, to hear the first calls of the vocal songbirds. The sounds are best experienced in thick woodland areas, but most of us can hear an ample amount of singing in our own back gardens.
The Mooney Show on RTÉ Radio One will be taking listeners
through the dawn chorus from midnight on Sunday, and throughout the show,
contributors will explain the sounds and songs of many birds. This way, you can
listen out for the individual birds, and recognise which sing earliest, and
which pipe up latest. Almost all of us are familiar with some common garden
birds, and these too will be heard on Sunday. You can start to watch out for
birds now that might be around your garden, and then listen out for their
distinctive calls during the dawn chorus. In this video below, I have labelled
some of the most common birds you might find rummaging around your garden.
Watch out for some of these birds, and listen to their individual song in the
SoundCloud file below.
Each bird will have its own song, some more distinctive than
others. Now that you have seen the birds, and will be more familiar with them
when you see them, take a listen below to some of their songs.
If you are a garden listener like me, you will most likely
come across the sounds of the more common birds. Here are three of the most
common that you are likely to hear if poking your head out for a quick listen
in the early hours of Sunday morning.
THE WOODPIGEON
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| Source: birdsofbray.blogspot.com |
The woodpigeon is one of those birds with a very distinctive song. Its song is a three note cooing sound like “whoo-who-huhu”.
The woodpigeon is one of the top 20 most common garden birds in Ireland, and
unlike crows, jackdaws and rooks, it is easily distinguishable from other
species. As you can see it has a thick grey body, and is known to have white
and green patches on the side of its neck. The woodpigeon stays in Ireland all
year round, but their stocks are boosted further by immigrant birds from the
continent in winter. The woodpigeon will be the baritone of the dawn chorus,
although their song is more ever-present in the evening, rather than the
morning.
THE BLACKBIRD
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The Blackbird is extremely common in Ireland, and is a regular fixture in parks and gardens around the country. It is recognisable over the crow, jackdaw, and rook because of its yellow beak. The blackbird's song comes in burst of around four seconds, and is a shrill whistling. The blackbird is a ground feeding bird, and can often be seen on lawns and among leaves looking to root up worms. During the dawn chorus, unlike the wood pigeon, the blackbird is best heard at early dawn, and will be bellowing its squeaky song over the lower toned woodpigeon. It was originally a woodland bird, or so researchers believe, because its low notes travel quite well through dense woodland.
THE ROBIN
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The Robin is related to the blackbird, as well as to the song thrush, but this bird is more common in Irish gardens than any other bird. It is very recognisable, not only from Christmas cards, but because of its red breast. Although known as the red-breasted robin, the red colour often extends up over the robins face, around its beak, and between its eyes. The robin feeds on insects and worms, but it will also eat scraps of food or bread left out or discarded by people. It will be one of the first birds to investigate a bird feeder if you fill it with broken pieces of bread. Within minutes, you will see one perched on a fences or twig, before it swoops down to the food. Its song is kind of a high pitched wobbling whistle, and when joined by the blackbird and song thrush, their tones are often difficult to decipher. The robin will sing early, but in urban areas, streetlights may also trigger the robin to sing at night.
International Dawn Chorus Day is a great excuse to get up early, go and sit in your garden on a bright May morning, and enjoy the sounds from the trees and chimney tops around you. Especially for those of you used to a busy lifestyle, listening to the dawn chorus on a lazy Sunday morning can be very relaxing for the day ahead.
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