EARLY BIRDS 2001
In the pitch darkness at 3.45 on Sunday 6th May, ten stalwart enthusiasts (= idiots) gathered in the car park in Sandall Beat Wood for the 2001 Dawn Chorus event. This event, now in its fifth year, has become part of what is known as International Dawn Chorus Day.
Setting off at 4am, the group, ears tuned for the slightest twitter or whistle, visited sixteen listening points along the route of the late George Coville’s ‘Woodman’s Trail’. By 6.30 we had completed the circuit and had heard the territorial songs and calls of some 117 birds of some 25 species. The sounds ranged from the grunting and squeaking of the Woodcock (the ‘Bag-puss’-like soft toy of the bird world), to the complex choirestry of the Blackcap, a summer visitor of the warbler family.
The older parts of the wood with its spectacular ancient beech trees produced the Morse-code calls of the Nuthatch and the loud drumming of the Green Woodpecker, whereas the young Willow and Birch scrub by the Phragmites fen produced the liquid descending scales of the Willow warbler.
The Robin, with 27 singing males, was easily the most frequent territory holder, with other common woodland songsters being Blackbird, Blue tit and Great tit.
One of the benefits of this long term event is the ability to monitor population changes. The diminutive Wren (a tiny bird with a huge voice) with up to 17 recorded in previous years, had dropped to 9 after the frosty winter, whereas the Woodpigeon with only 3 recorded in 1997 had risen to second place with 15 this year.
On our arrival in the early hours, a car (not unlike Margaret’s) with steamed up windows was already in the car park, but unlike our quiet and stealthy approach, it was throbbing with the percussive blast of rave music. Just as I was giving our group the introductory talk, the car door opened, liberating a wall of decibels and the staggering figure of a young lad. He swerved across to us and very courteously asked what on earth we were doing here. We asked the same and he volunteered the fact that he and his mates were drinking and enjoying drugs … why else would anyone be there at that time ? Our response, that we had come to watch the dawn come up and to listen to the Dawn Chorus, freaked him out completely and he staggered back in disbelief to the familiar and comforting fug of his mobile opium den.