Heron on the far bank with frost and somnolent mallards
Kingfisher by the bridge
Grey Heron
Goldfinch
Tawny calls
I took a walk through the forest in the dark to record tawny owls. I had no luck until I was heading back on the track at the edge of the trees with my mic on record and some instinct made me stop. The first calls are female. The answers are male. Amazing sounds..
Nightingale
Ancient Oak
This is an ancient oak tree in the forest that’s been there for many centuries. It’s a good friend and counsellor, and I’ve been visiting it on and off for nearly four decades. The trunk measures three paces in diameter and the remains of a fallen bough stretches out for twelve paces to the side. Other fallen timbers lie around too, split along their length but still strong, like half finished struts and spars in an abandoned boat yard.
Another nightingale
I heard another new nightingale in the forest last night, which brings the total there to nine different singers so far this year. Given that only around five thousand may make it across the channel each spring that’s an impressive amount for a smallish patch of woodland near the species’ northern limit.
The cuckoo and the nightingale
The cuckoo and the nightingale in Southwick Forest at 9pm on 5 May
Owls
I’ve just been listening to two tawny owls doing high wobbly hooting, rhythmic and overlapping, one on G and the other a D below that. Never heard anything like it before. Beautiful.
A nightingale on May Morning
A nightingale I unexpectedly heard (and could just about see) in Short Wood at first light this morning. Happy Dawn Chorus Day!
Bluebells
Gilbert White’s Brown Owls
A new track created with Faradena Afifi. It started with a recording I made of two Tawny Owls in the forest, then we added music and I read excerpts from Gilbert White’s 18th Century writings “The Natural History of Selborne”