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I can’t put into words how importance sound is in my life. I’ve been very fortunate to be blessed with good hearing (hopefully will hold onto it for as long as I can), but regardless of hearing ability, over the years of studying music professionally, I’ve learned to process and interpret sound in a very different way. By listening to nature in the same way somebody would listen and learn a song, it really helps to identify species on a more intimate level, and in this process I’ve learned so much more about the natural world. By listening and interpreting nature on a fine-detail level, you really create a sense of awareness of your surroundings, which helps you learn to live in the present moment. Living in the present is very hard to do when you’re suffering from anxiety as urban noises tend to inhibit your concentration. This is why it’s so important we cherish each moment with nature as it really does heal us.

Nature Elements Playlist:

Mimicking is used in various forms in the bird world. Some birds like Starlings and Sedge Warblers use mimicry to increase their repertoire and show off their abilities to not only perform difficult tasks, but their ability to listen and learn, which is a vital skill for survival of a bird in the wild. There are other types of mimicry used in the bird world however. Corvids often use mimicry for tactical reasons, whether it’s for the purpose of deception or claiming territories. One thing that’s for sure, the saying ‘bird brain’ doesn’t quite fit the bill, as they are in-fact quite intelligent. So where does the Firecrest fit into this? Well spring 2019 I was introduced to a new Firecrest territory in the local area by Tim Griffiths. Apart from the unusual location, all seemed fairly typical, until the bird starting to sing! It was able to produce extended periods of Goldcrest song, and would switch from its own to the song of a Goldcrest like it had some dual personality disorder. I had to learn more about this, so I did some research and asked all local ornithologists if they had herd of this behaviour in regulus before and Chris Hatch was able to find some writings in one of his books where it does say that Firecrest is capable of producing Goldcrest song. This book didn’t however state why, and I was eager to find this out. So I managed to obtain a last minute license to study these birds up close. Throughout spring 2019 I found over 10 Firecrest territories in Gwent, and I was very surprised to find that 9/10 of these singing males was able to produce some form of a Goldcrest mimic. The birds that used the mimicry the most, were also the most accurate at re-producing the Goldcrest song. I’ve written a paper on all of my findings, and though that is complete already, I aim todo the same throughout spring 2020 in order to add more variables.

I’ve always known that all animals have individual traits, just like people. Many people see animals as carbon copies of each other, especially birds, and if there’s nothing unique visually about them, it can be difficult to determined who is who. My Grandmother was distraught when I told her that her regular wintering Robin is probably a different bird every year, but the truth is, who knows? Unless they have a ring on their leg it can be difficult to tell. If you listen to your local birds often enough though, you can tell pick out unique phrases in individuals. My Garden Blackbird for instance mimics my neighbours whistle every day, as my neighbour whistles hymns after every Sunday church service every single week.

I find these unique features fascinating as it connects me to them on a deeper level. I think something in passing, possibly off Tv, that you could identify individual male Nightjars by the BPM (beats per minute) and the pitch of their song. I was fascinated by this idea as a sound recorder, and as Nightjar’s are my all-time favourite bird, so was eager to test this theory myself.

I started recording Nightjars in 2015, finding all my local territories but focusing on one specific territory in the hope that I could discern if it was the same bird returning the next year. It’s taken some years worth of recording before I’ve started to accumulate enough data. Spring 2019 and I was finally seeing results and I can confirm it is possible to ID individual males by their song alone, but without some sort of auto-analysis software, was almost impossible todo in the field. I’m close to having perfect pitch, but I’m finding the pitch element tends to be so similar in males, it’s really unreliable without looking back on the computer or possible having a live sonograph in the field to look at. Tempo on the other hand seems to be pretty consistent for their first song of the night, but they get a little lazy as the night goes on and results are a little dodgy.

2020 was going to be the year this research came together, but with Covid-19 hitting the entire globe, it may have to take a back seat till next year. I’ll post my research as soon as it’s in a state of interpretation but so far everything is looking very promising.

Nightjar’s are my favourite bird, for many reasons, but mostly because of the way they live their life: Surviving of the destructive nature of the human-race and all the while, doing so completely unseen to the human eye.

I think it’s important that I share my Nocturnal Migration journey with people, as it’s not only a massive learning curve for me, it might also help others make less mistakes if they decide to join in on the hype. Once you get your first bird, whatever it is, Mallard, Coot, Moorhen, it is very satisfying and once you hit something you never thought you’d ever get, it quickly becomes addictive! I cannot wait to check my recordings in the morning to see what might be on there and as the days go on and the list grows, it’s really becoming quite an important data resource. This is why i’ve logged all my sightings in a datasheet, that includes weather details, file names, amount of calls ect ect. You will get addicted to it eventually, and the weather conditions really mix things up during migration as winds are forever changing.

As you’ll see below, I’ve had quite a variety so far but I’ll organise these better as time goes on and I accumulate some good examples for you to reference from.