Monday 18^th March 2024  9.05 to 9.50 a.m.

Sitting on a tree stump. Many of my birding hours are spent surveying, walking steadily along a regular route listening and looking.  However once in a while it is lovely to just sit as still as possible and wait and see what comes.

Today, with the much missed blue skies and just the occasional wispy cloud above, after weeks and weeks of rain, I push up through boggy mud to the Limestone Pavement to pick an ash tree stump as my perfect sitting spot.

With the quarry close by it isn’t long before the Jackdaws make themselves heard.  Like me the Jackdaws are enjoying this moment of warmth and, for them, a chance to enjoy some light thermals in the quarry.  A brief snatch of Peregrine call and the Jackdaws pause but are barely threatened.  They have been sharing the same space for a while now and are accustomed to each other. 

Below me extends Badgers Wood and I hear loud and clear the song of a Wren deep in the wood – with another responding almost immediately – seemingly as a conversation but more likely as a territory statement. Then a Chiff Chaff with it’s distinctive ‘chiff chaff chiff chaff’ song. What a welcome sound that is.  Chiff Chaffs have only just started singing this spring and, for me, it is the bird song that most reflects that winter is nearly over. 

Next I hear a Green Finch.  Initially the rasping, wheezing sound of a Green Finch hanging on to the topmost branch of a very tall tree, then the beautiful flute like bubbling sounds of a Green Finch on the move.  Again a bird I am particularly delighted to hear.  The population of Green Finches took a dive during the early 2000s which was linked to an outbreak of trichomonosis and for a while there was real concern for their future.  After 5 years I’d almost forgotten the sound of their song and their distinctive olive green colour with a dash of yellow patches on wings and tail.  Fortunately they are now noticeably increasing in numbers in North Somerset and it is a real pleasure to find them wherever I go.

As sound continues to rise up from the wood I catch the distant song of a Nuthatch, then a Crow overhead, and a Raven croaking as it passes by. 

Sadly a drizzle begins and my notepad is soggy so I head back towards the cabin.  As I do the Great Spotted Woodpecker gives a solitary chirp and I begin to hear sounds of Blue Tits and Great Tits amongst the Yew trees.  I have a theory that Tits are late risers.  I rarely seem to hear much of them at the start of a walk but they are often in full busy mode as I head home. 

As I reach the cabin the rain eases and the birds continue to sing – hardly disturbed by the light change in the weather.