Viewing entries tagged
Robin

Road Trip

A hunt for Red Squirrels saw an early start of 3am this morning to get to North Wales for sun rise. The day didn't quite go to plan with a number of challenges, number 1 of which was Dog Walkers. I returned to the same woodland that brought me success last year but this time, on a weekend instead of a week day, which turned out to be a big mistake. Either way, the scenery in North Wales was spectacular and well worth the travel. In our time there we were entertained by the bubbling sounds of Curlew overhead, the whistling echoes of Wigeon and the scratching bark of  Nuthatches frantically stealing all the nuts we brought with us. 

Too much to talk about!

Please take the time to listen with a good pair of headphones (if you have a pair of course). Sound Quality doesn't get much better than this. It's a short recording of an evening chorus on my local moorland/woodland which was painted with the passing by of off-road bikers. Something that we're getting a lot more of lately. A group of 20 Bikers travelled from London just to rip up OUR local moorland... Very frustrating. 

In other news, it was nice to see 3 Oystercatchers stopping off this evening for a rest during their spring Migration to their breeding grounds. They looked very tired but were also very un-settled about staying with quite a lot of cars buzzing by the damn wall. You need only pop your head over the wall for them to fly off and circle the area before settling again. 

While you have your headphones on, this recording was taken during the evening chorus and before the Motorbikes turned up so I managed a fairly lengthy recording of this Robin. I did however capture a plane in the background which is near impossible this day and age to get anything but with planes going over every 5-10 minutes no matter where you are. 

This next recording deserves a blog post of its own to be honest as I could talk about this for hours. It's a manipulation of a Skylark recording that shows just how complex their song actually is. By slowing down the recording, you can pick out individual beats like it was a peace of music. Yet, even having slowed this recording 7 times slower than its original speed, the rhythms are still extremely fast and hard to comprehend! It's a drummers dream to reach speeds this fast and something we will never achieve as human beings without the aid of computers. Yet again, out-trumped by the natural world and we clearly still have a lot to learn, even with something that we consider a very human trait, after-all, we invented music right? I think not ;)

Never a rainy day for a Robin

Is there anything that will stop a Robin from singing? Not even the darkness of night these days is enough to silence Britain's National Bird. 

I'm sure you're familiar with this winter song 

Pheasant

Ok, that was easy. I know! but how beautiful! This guy is pretty tame (so long as I don't step out of the hide) so I've managed to get fairly close as you can see. 

Winter Robin Song

Winter Robin Song

Finally got around to recording the Winter Robin Song! Not ideal recording conditions with all this wind and rain but I just about managed to get some clear isolated recordings while hiding out of the wind beneath some thick bushes. You'll hear plenty of other Robins singing in the background back and forth this guy so I was spoiled with choice a bit. In the last section when the wind picks up, you'll also hear that this Robin has mimicked a couple phrases from either a Blue Tit or Great Tit. 

There is a distinctive difference between a Winter song and a spring/summer song of a Robin. There are a number of theories as to why this is the case; 1. The birds that sing in the winter are often migratory birds off the continent 2. They expend less energy on the content of their song as it serves a slightly different function to that of a spring song. 3. Colder Weather inhibits their ability to produce a full spring/summer song as it does require a lot of energy that they cannot afford to waste. Personally, I think all of those points play a part in why their song is slightly different in winter. Some may not even notice the difference but if you compare this song to another recording that I did closer to spring - https://soundcloud.com/gavin-vella/sets/favourite-recordings - you can certainly hear a difference in melody and see a difference in the length of phrases. The linked recording is more melodic and clearly has more energy. That said, I do love a Winter Robin, it keeps me going throughout the winter months.

Calendar 2016?

It's coming to that time of year where I'm thinking about what pictures to put in next years Calendar. I only sent them out to family last year but considering the fantastic year I've had with my photography, I'm thinking of opening up the idea to everyone. If you yourself would like a Calendar featuring my best of 2015, please contact me and we'll sort it out ready for Christmas. 

Below are some from todays short session late evening in the Blaenserchan Valley 

Winter Birds

Winter is pretty much here! It felt really cold on the moorland today and the birds new it! This time of year, they only have one thing on their mind and that is, food! Thankfully, that is where we can help out and providing birds with food throughout winter is sometimes the only lifeline certain species have. 

First Redwing, now Fieldfare and Brambling!

Autumn/Winter Migrants are flooding in at a rapid rate! So rapid that I've already photographed all 3 Birds that I intended on getting this Winter haha. Saw my first flock of Brambling today and they are such great Birds and something I will continue to look forward to seeing each winter. 

To top it off, I had such an awesome flyby from a Redkite that gave me a good look in before flying off into the Valley.