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Set your alarm. This Sunday, May 3rd, something extraordinary will happen at 5am in the fields and lanes around Betchworth and Buckland — and almost nobody will be awake to hear it. It's International Dawn Chorus Day once again, the one morning in the year when people around the world are invited to step outside before sunrise and listen. What they hear is one of the most astonishing natural performances on earth: the dawn chorus, the great collective outpouring of birdsong that erupts in the half-light of an early May morning and builds, layer by layer, into a full orchestral spectacle before most of us have even opened our eyes. It begins in near-darkness. Song thrushes, blackbirds and robins are the opening soloists, staking their claims in the still, cool air when sound carries furthest and rivals are listening hardest. Then the wrens add their improbably loud rattle, the chiffchaffs start their rhythmic two-note call, the blackcaps deliver their rich, accelerating warble, and gradually — tit by tit, warbler by warbler — the whole neighbourhood joins in. By 6am, if you are standing in the right spot, the air around you is alive with the overlapping songs of a dozen or more species singing simultaneously at full intensity. There is nothing quite like it. This year we are establishing a Betchworth and Buckland Nature Trail, to help connect people to nature and encourage us to appreciate the biodiversity that surrounds us. Our first project is to record the dawn chorus at 12 locations along the route and using the Merlin bird identification app reveal exactly who is singing and where. The result is a dawn chorus sound map of our local landscape. There is no substitute for being immersed in the dawn call but if Sunday's alarm feels like a step too far, our Nature Trail Dawn Chorus Sound Map sound map is waiting for you. NB It looks like it will rain early Sunday morning but don't worry you can experience the Dawn Chorus on a dry morning any time this week. 
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 This last week has been one of significant change on my daily bird surveys as the landscape and climate go through a significant change. Firstly, the farmer has ploughed the fields, which initially brought earthworms to the surface that provided a glut for corvids (crows, jackdaw & magpie) and buzzard but now seeded and rolled the fields leaving a barren brown wasteland. The skylark have retreated to short grassland covering the restored quarry and landfill site in front of the Post Office. This has caused a significant drop in records for the field habitat. The second event of the end of April is the return of winter migrants, various species of warblers, closely followed yesterday by a Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) that lays her eggs in their nests calling for a mate. The warblers and their allies are well represented in my surveys with records of five of the 13 species of warbler that regularly visit South East England – Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, Willow Warbler & Chiffchaff love the dense scrub of the River Mole Valley. Of their allies I’ve recorded Goldcrest & Firecrest in our garden, as well as the woodland and riparian sections of the walk. As yet I’ve not managed to record any flycatchers in this area. My updated species list is shown below. Right the cuckoo my bird of the week.  We've experienced a significantly drier-than-usual spring. Broadly speaking the weather was milder during April, although we have had a couple of late frosts and a few blustery days but not so many showers. I added 3 more species to my list of wild bird species with Moorhen calling from the River Mole on the riparian walk and a Serin heard and seen in the large sallow growing in our ancient hedgerow. The highlight however, was hearing and seeing a Gray Wagtail (left) at our garden pond, which I recently cut back some of the over-mature vegetation to reveal open water making it more attractive to aquatic insect species such as pond skaters, diving beetles and midges.  The finches are well represented in my records with Chaffinch, Linnet, Redpoll, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Siskin and Serin all being sighted and recorded across a range of habitats in the 4Bs area. I chose the Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) as my bird of the month (right), not just because it’s such a beautiful bird to photograph and draw but also it exemplifies the value of gardening for wildlife. We do not dead-head our wildflowers and other plants at the end of the flowering season but let them form seedheads. As a consequence, we get regular visits from feeding goldfinch over winter and early spring.  I have now added Sparrowhawk, Marsh Tit and Siskin to my garden survey, recorded Mallard on the riparian walk and Tawny Owl in the woodland. So far I have recorded a total of 47 native species and 5 naturalised species of bird across the four transect walks.
My bird of the week is the Tawny Owl (Strix aluco), an owl that favours woodland and wooded areas with tall hedges and trees, such as the spinney near the barns and Betchworth church where I heard it hooting this week. This medium-sized owl is primarily nocturnal feeding on voles, mice, rats, small birds, frogs, beetles and earthworms but can sometimes be seen roosting in the mature oak tree near my garden during daylight hours. I have been drawing this impressive and beautiful bird since I was a young child and it has always been one of my favourite species. |
4Bs Nature Group BlogThis blog is maintained by the 4Bs Biodiversity Initiative Team. Its purpose is to provide brief updates of activities and encourage the sharing of experiences and learning. We welcome guests and contributions from members of the 4Bs WhatsApp Nature Group and wider community. To contribute a post please email the editor at biodiversityinititiative1 @gmail.com PagesArchives
May 2026
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