Woodland bordering Garreg Ddu reservoir, Elan Valley, Wales.
It's 8.30am and the main flush of the early bird chorus has long subsided. Here in the mixed oak, birch & hazel woodland the sun is warming the earth, Bumble-bees are foraging amidst the early spring flowers which are just coming into bloom and, on a low branch close by, a Song Thrush is singing forth.
The Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) is probably our most articulate resident songster, and its distinctive calls, generally repeated in groups of two to four, cover a huge range of sounds from quite pure melodic tones to the most guttural. Each individual seems to have its own repertoire which it cycles through in no particular order. Performances, if I can refer to them as such, often continue in the same spot or thereabouts for an hour or more, as was the case here.
Listeners in the USA might recognise the songthrush's similarity to the American Robin (Turdus migratorius), a closely related species.
Also heard: Willow Warbler, Great-spotted Woodpecker, tapping a nearby tree in search of insects, Carrion Crow, Bumble Bee, Blue Tit, Wren, some very distant Canada Geese about 10 minutes in, and one or two other species which I can't identify.
I wouldn't normally expect to be able to record so late in the morning due to near constant aircraft overflights, but in a hour or so of recording in which the Song Thrush sang almost continuously, I managed to find a few windows of opportunity, and these are edited and presented here.
Recorded: 2017-04-19 0830
Location: 52.2719 -3.5961
Download full recording:
16min, 23MB, .ogg format
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