Shapwick Heath NNR at dawn; on the edge of woodland and reedbed.

A short sample of a 32bit WAV recording on a 1" XY stereo mic. rendered down to 24bit stereo.

Recording & Photo: Bob Ashington

Where wood meets water - at dawn

Pied Flycatcher in the wonderful oak woodland of Yarner Wood, Devon.  
 Recorded in mono on a F2 mini recorder.



Recording: Bob Ashington

210507 Pied Flycatcher - Yarner Wood NNR F2

A short pre-dawn recording of a booming bittern.

Recording: Bob Ashington

Bittern at Shapwick

Heron flyover at Shapwick

A short recording of a blackbird (and brief Cetti's Warbler at the start) from Shapwick Heath NNR earlier this year.

Recording: Bob Ashington

Blackbird at Shapwick

Early morning on Martin Down NNR - and a variety of birds contribute to this early summer dawn chorus.

Recording: Bob Ashington

Dawn at Martin Down

The characteristic churring of a nightjar on the heath at Yarner Wood NNR earlier this year.  The 'white noise' in the background is a nearby river.

Recording: Bob Ashington

Nightjar churring - Yarner Wd

The flight calls and wing-clapping of a male nightjar over the heath at Yarner Wood NNR, recorded earlier this year.  The background noise is that of a nearby river.

Recording:  Bob Ashington

Nightjar flight calls and wing claps - Yarner Wd

A mono recording of the winter starling roost at the RSPB Ham Wall reserve.  Tens of thousands of birds are perched in a reedbed about 50 metres in front (and probably a hundred people about 30 metres behind!) having just arrived in large flocks which wheeled briefly over the area before dropping down into the reeds in a 'fall'.  Birds are still moving around within the reeds so there is plenty of discussion and drum of wings.  Captured on a pocket Zoom F2 field recorder.

Recording: Bob Ashington

Starling roost at Ham Wall

Whitethroat short song.  I always look forward to April / May and the arrival of all our different summer migrants; the countryside suddenly comes alive with sound!  Get out there and enjoy it!!

Recording: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team
Photo: Natural England

Whitethroat

Recorded alongside the River Frome near Wareham. A Sedge Warbler belts out its' song imitating several other species as it does so!

Recording: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team
Photo: Natural England

Sedge Warbler

An early morning stroll along the River Frome near Wareham, in May, is bound to be filled with birdsong!  Here we have a couple of classics - a Swallow singing whilst perched on a telegraph wire with a Cuckoo stalking the water meadows behind.

Recording: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team
Photo: Natural England

Swallow and Cuckoo - River Frome

Birds aren't the only things 'singing' out there!  This is a great time of year to listen out for some of the more musical invertebrates we have - like the Orthoptera.  More commonly known as grasshoppers, bush crickets and true crickets some these can be surprisingly loud!  

First up - a Bog bush cricket recorded on one of our East Dorset NNRs.

Recording & Photo: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team



Bog bush cricket

In mid-October, in this part of Dorset, the Sika rut is in full swing.  Here is a couple of examples of the strange 'whistle-groan' the Sika stag gives as his challenge to other stags.  Recorded at Arne in Dorset.

Recording & Photo: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team

Sika stag - rutting calls

In contrast to the seasonally-vocal stags, Sika hinds are happy to give these alarm calls - a high-pitched whistle - at any time of the year.  If you hear this - you've been spotted!

Recording & Photo: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team

Sika hind alarm calls

This woodpecker just happened to fly over the top of me as I crouched, half-hidden, waiting for a stag to do his stuff!  Recorded at Arne.

Recording: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team
Photo: Natural England

Green Woodpecker

The characteristic piping call of a Nuthatch.  Recorded at Arne.

Recording: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team
Photo: Natural England

Nuthatch

A Starling murmuration is always a wonderful sight in the depths of winter.  The recent hard weather abroad has forced many birds to move to warmer areas (known as a cold weather movement).  This has brought thousands of Starlings to our bit of Dorset and resulted in a small reedbed near Studland becoming - almost overnight - a desirable place to roost.  The resulting pre-roost acrobatics have become quite a local attraction too!  At times bird numbers are estimated to exceed 10,000 individuals so raptors are attracted in too; the photo shows the starling flock taking evasive action when a Merlin arrives.

The wave-like sounds are the wings of the birds as the starlings come in low over the reedbed just before they land to roost.

Recording & Photo: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team

Starling murmuration - Studland

Two weeks ago (mid-January) a small flock of Starlings, on the move from the bitter weather abroad, chose a small reedbed at Studland in Dorset as a roost site.  As the weather got colder the number of birds in each evenings' murmuration (the swirling aerobatic flocks) increased - and so did the crowds watching them!  Add in a visit by the Winterwatch team last week and now the crowds in the evening are in the hundreds!

Make the effort to get there just before dawn, however, and you'll be rewarded with another impressive display of noise and birds as all the Starlings leave in one go to forage for the day.  

This recording was made on an incredibly foggy morning  - listen out for the foghorn of the chain ferry nearby.  The Starlings get louder and more excited as they build up to the great launch with a few smaller mini-launches as the flock rolls over the reedbed.  And in case you're wondering, the strange 'double bumps' you can hear are cars on the ramps of the ferry!

Recording & Photo: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team

Starlings at Studland - morning flight

With so many Blackcaps arriving and moving through the country it isn't uncommon to hear several at once in neighbouring scrub - and sometimes even in the same bush!

Recording: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team

Blackcap x2

While the most obvious sounds of Spring are the birds, it is also a time to start getting reacquainted with the sights and sounds of our insect species once again.  This one is a real herald of Spring for me - here feeding on a grape hyacinth in my back garden (unlike the one in the photo)!  The steady note is it hovering as it feeds and the more energetic ones it moving around the flower head.

Recording: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team
Photo: Natural England

Dark-bordered Bee Fly

May is arguably the richest month of the year to enjoy birdsong - here are several common species plus a couple of rather more unusual ones....

Recording & Photo: Bob Ashington - Dorset, Hampshire & IoW Team

May morning medley

The Chiffchaffs appear to be earlier this year than ever!  The early sound of spring returning.

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

Chiffchaff

A male Yellowhammer calling out over open countryside in West Dorset.

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

Yellowhammer

Whilst wandering around in the half-light of dawn I rounded a corner and bumped into this fella - he was not impressed!

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

Pheasant - alarm calls and flight

The relatively simple song of the Linnet - no less attractive for that though!

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

Linnet

Dawn on a wetland nature reserve.  Located on the edge of two busy habitats - reedbed and willow carr - a wide variety of species can be heard in this recording.  Listen out for the distinctive loud explosive Cetti's Warbler, the pig-like squeals of Water Rail, and the Wren trying to hog the limelight!

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

Reedbed edge at dawn - Ham Wall, Somerset

A short one this - some booming Bitterns at one of Natural England's National Nature Reserves.  You'll need good headphones for these - Bitterns employ some very low frequencies and subsonics so their song carries a long way through the rustling reedbeds they inhabit.

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

Bitterns - Shapwick Heath NNR

For the final Natterjack recording I've got a recording which includes some variations to the 'usual' call.

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

Natterjack Toads - various vocalisations

The first of several tracks showcasing one of our most celebrated songsters - the Nightingale.  Recorded late in the evening at one of the most westerly breeding sites for this species in the UK.

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

Nightingale night 1

A few of those sounds now that always suggest summer to me - the audio backdrop to long, hot, lazy days!

First up - probably the one we all remember from childhood, when it seemed every patch of grass was alive with sound - grasshoppers you could always find even if catching them proved to be a bit harder!

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

The sounds of summer - Meadow grasshopper

Whereas meadow grasshoppers (previous recording) have been around forever, this bush cricket is still relatively new on the scene with populations spreading across southern England only in the last few decades.  I still remember the first one I heard way back in the '90s!!

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

The sounds of summer 2 - Roesel's  bush cricket

To complete the triplet of summery insects (for now) are the soothing drones of bees and a Drone fly (well named!) on a bramble bush.  The lower toned note belongs to the fly.

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

The sounds of summer 3 - honeybees & Drone Fly

This is my all time, number one, summer sound; I've been lucky enough to have had swifts nesting either near or in my home all my life.  Nothing says summer more to me than this sound.

This recording was made in Dorchester near an established and long-standing nesting site and the birds passed so close to me you can hear their wings beating as they flick past!  Also listen out for some of the birds landing up under the eaves of the house.  Enjoy!

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

The sounds of summer 4 - screaming Swifts

Now this one may seem like a strange choice as corvid roosts are more usually seen as a 'winter thing' but from around midsummer the leafy avenues in Dorchester start to fill each evening with scores of Jackdaws and Rooks - both adults and their newly fledged broods.  The numbers build up all through the second half of the year until the leaves drop and then the area becomes a pre-roost 'collection point' prior to all the birds (and several thousand others) leaving to their winter roost in a wood several miles away.  That in itself is a dramatic event but one for another recording!

The Woodpigeon joining in is also a suitably summer sound!

Recording - Bob Ashington (aka BirdSongBob)

The sounds of summer 5 - Corvid roost

Sharing our love of wildlife and the natural world through sound recordings taken from our National Nature Reserves and the wider countryside. 

Use headphones to really enjoy these recordings.

Natural England

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