Dawn Chorus

The first Sunday in May is the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Dawn Chorus Day. This year it was on May 5th so I went for an early walk to try out Cornell University’s Merlin app which identifies birds through the sounds they make. I walked around the garden and up into the Coombe to the Lime Kilns and listened to the wonderful symphony of bird song and the occasional fluttering of wings as wood pigeons flew close by.

The app records, identifies and lists all the birds and highlights the name of the bird with the dominant sound at any moment, so it coaches you to recognise which bird is making which sound. On my 30min walk the app identified – Robin, Wren, Wood pigeon, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Marsh Tit, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Jackdaw, Magpie, Blackcap, Carrion Crow, Chiffchaff and Pheasant. So at least fifteen species of bird contributed to my experience of the Dawn Chorus. It would be interesting to stitch together a patchwork of recordings and identifications from our area.
Visit https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/ to find out about Merlin app.