Monday 23rd March 2026 9:00 a.m.
Spring is on the way - accompanied by plentiful bird song and spring flowers.
Rain, rain go away …come back another day! And so it did, for a while. After the wettest January and February on record we are happy to reach spring with its mixed bag of true blue skies and sunshine followed by rain, wind and unexpected frosts. This is more like it!
On Monday 23rd March I headed up to the woods to amble in the early morning sunshine before joining the weekly volunteer workparty. It was a chilly morning, worthy of gloves and a scarf but the sun offered a promise to warm the day.
I was deluged with bird song as soon as I entered the woods. Wrens on either side of me, belting out their song safely from the undergrowth, a hidden Chiff Chaff singing on a tree to the left whilst a Robin perched up high for its lengthy outpouring. Above me Jackdaws, a Magpie and then Crows are calling and chattering. As I headed up to the layers Blue Tits chunter to either side, a Great Tit does a perfect ‘Teacher Teacher’, a Dunnock whistles to the left and a Blackbird alarm call sounds from within the bramble. So much sound it is almost difficult to separate it out. As I reach the still damp layers bench, I stop to lean against the back to listen some more. Facing away from the lovely view across to the channel I can see Church Town road and the trees in the distance from where suddenly two unusually quiet Jays dart into view – beautifully resplendent in their colours. As they disappeared I was just pausing to wonder why I hadn’t yet seen any Wood Pigeons when three fly across above me heading south.
Spring flowers are already showing on the layers. Early Dog-violets are dotted up the side banks together with Lesser Celandines.
Around the bench are Primrose and Cowslip hybrids (or False Oxlip) which seem to favour these woods
But I cannot stop to focus on these for too long as I now have four Wrens singing out from differing parts of the layers and I am listening carefully to distinguish the varying tones of each of their songs. Birds, like humans, each have their own particular intonation plus their own distinct dialects or accents. A Wren’s song, for instance, must remain identifiable but, having a fairly long and complex song, there is scope within the Wren song to lose or add the occasional note, add emphasis on different notes or use the scale slightly differently. To complicate matters further, in spring or first thing in the morning when birds are just ‘firing up’, they often only sing part of their song. A fun example of bird song variation is the Chiff Chaff. This is a rather small bird with a beautiful, albeit rather simple onomatopoeic song, It sings ‘Chiff Chaff Chiff Chaff’, not leaving much room for variation. But this is a small bird that likes to make its mark in the woods. So from time to time you can catch the sound of ‘Chaff Chiff, Chaff Chiff’.
Time to head down to the BET cabin. As the sky lightens, Blackbird chitter chatter song accompanies me down the steps - first one Blackbird and then another sounding as if answering back. Along the fern path a Nuthatch offers up loudly its particular set of whistles in a song – a sure and happy sign that spring has definitely arrived.