Dr Bodds Dawn Chorus Survey

Dr Bodds Dawn Chorus Survey

A not so bright eyed bunch of us met at Dr Bodds at 4.45am sharp on Wednesday morning to begin our dawn chorus survey on the Downs. We headed up to Buckenhill and as the day started to dawn, we stopped and really started to listen. Not something you do very often, and it was quite startling to notice all the layers of sound that usually blend into a background blur of noise. David pointed out the call of the songthrush whose ‘burst of song is so beautiful it just has to repeat it’. They repeat snippets of song which regularly change but always repeat. David explains that the mistle thrush starts singing in October because they nest early –and they usually singing while perched very high up. He also points out the distinct sounds of the robin and yellowhammer.

l-r : Lauren, Victoria, Janet and David begin the survey

We hear a wood pigeon - David explains that you often hear the distinctive flapping of these birds as they do this is in an almost aggressive display to mark their territory. The chiffchaff is very distinctive and can really only be confused with the song of the great tit – who has a large repertoire of short songs including an irregular musical call. We pass through some denser scrub, passing a very lovely gnarled oak, listening to more blackbirds and willow warblers, and head out onto the grassland just as the light increases. Within what seems like seconds we are in almost full daylight with pink sky streaking over the gorse and scrub, and a bright orange sun ascending over the horizon. This definitely makes the 4am start worth it - a chorus of bird song, few souls about and a sun streaked sky to gaze at – magic!

Sunrise over the Downs

Many birds such as the chiffchaff love this scrubby habitat we are passing through, edges of woodlands and blackthorn and blackberry scrub which provides shelter.Gorse is another favourite, especially of the linnet which David thinks he can hear in the background. There are around 7 or 8 breeding pairs known in the Park Head area as this species like to congregate in groups. The willow warbler we all start to identify with its sing song call which ‘sounds like it’s falling down the stairs at the end’. This is likely one of the largest patches of gorse in Herefordshire and as such an important place to preserve. As we walk round we admire therare adders tongue fern, the lousewort, and David points out what is reportedly an increasingly rare non-hybridised dog violet – Viola canina.

A large specimen of adders tongue fern and a dog violet at Park Head

Crossing the road, we wander up the track between the Jubilee Oaks and Hill field coppice and hear more willow warblers, song thrushes and the distinct, slightly aggressive sound of the blackcap. We hear more chaffinch whose call ends with a kind of ‘woopsybing’ but, apparently ‘woopsybings’ have been found to have different dialects according to region!

David explained that there aren’t many rooks here, putting this down to the fact that populations diminished when many people shot them for rook pie. There are however ravens at David’s house on the lower half of the Downs, and up at Warren Farm where they nest in the pine tree.

We continue our walk along the Butts, passing the spring which previously fed 3 ponds and other interesting spots including a cluster of cowslips glowing in the sunshine, a spot where greater butterfly orchid is known, bunches of cuckoo flower on which the orange tip butterfly lays their eggs and many patches of developing ash scrub. David points out wet flushes where reed bunting and snipe used to breed.

Cowslips below Warren wood and listening out on the Butts

We continue on, hearing more willow warblers, garden warblers and mistle thrushes as well as the increasing ‘human noises’ of traffic, chickens, dogs and the general humdrum of the everyday. We round up our survey with hot drinks and bacon butties courtesy of Marianne Boddington – perfect!

The group heading back for bacon butties, and broom surrounded by bluebells

One more discovery – Bromyardis so named, after Broom!