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Once a year the park opens up early for the 'Dawn Chorus' bird walk, a sun-up meander through the grounds guided by an expert from the RSPB. After a dash to make it for the 7am start, I just about arrived in time for the chiff-chaff song, though I hadn't yet attuned my straining ears to be able to disentangle the many voices. Everything at the beginning seemed drowned out by the honking geese.
But then, bit by bit, you begin to pick up on things, you hear faint or high-pitched variations, different rhythms and complexities, and you realise how distinctive these songs are. Park Warden Dominic was there with his binoculars and kindly explained a few things to me, pointing out invisible things in trees and generally impressing with his knowledge of the natural world. I meanwhile was struggling for the language to even ask the questions...
The emphasis here was on listening; being silent, being still. This is a lesson in its own right. As you walk the birds fall quiet, but after a few moments of standing the crescendo begins to swell around you, after 4 or 5 minutes the birds are in full and confident voice - forgetting all about you.
The variety is astonishing, in three hours we must have heard at least 20 species. As with the trees, insects and mushrooms - I am beginning to understand that this park is teeming with life, including anomalous and unusual varieties whose presence surprises even the experts.
If we started with a chiff chaff then we ended with a yellowhammer, or, "a little bit of bread but no cheese", as its song goes. Our RSPB man told us that some birds have 'regional accents', and a Yorkshire finch, for example, will have a subtly different song to another from a different area...
I added this to the growing list of things that must verify/find out more about. Citation needed.
1 Male Yellowhammer - Emberzia citranella, courtesy RSPB.org.uk
