EPISODE 14 BIRDSONG SPECIAL

Join Kate, Stephen and Katie O'Neill from the Nature on Your Doorstep team for an early morning trip to a woodland full of birdsong. They talk about why birds sing and why we love to hear them. There's also a guest appearance by a very tuneful song thrush and Stephen gets to try out a fancy microphone.

LINKS
City Nature Challenge
https://citynaturechallenge.org/

Big Garden Birdwatch Results
https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/

Take part in Dawn Chorus DAy
https://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves-and-events/events-dates-and-inspiration/events/dawn-chorus/

More about Nature on Your Doorstep
https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/nature-on-your-doorstep/

Transcript

Unknown: 0:22

This is Natureri news from RSPB Scotland Hello and welcome to Our Podcast nature news from RSPB Scotland. I'm Steven McGee. This is where we bring you stories about nature from global news to the little things we're noticing every day. And I'm Kate Kirkwood, there's never been a time when looking out for nature and acting to protect it has been more important. We're keen to hear your nature news, whether it's the little moments you've experienced or your thoughts on the big issues affecting the planet. You can contact us on Twitter at RSPB Scotland or you can email us at podcast.scotland@rspb.org.uk. And please subscribe and leave us a review because it helps others find us in the podcast jungle. Morning we are in Rosslyn Glen on ithe outskirts of Edinburgh. And we are here because Katie invited us here Hi KAtie.. Hey, yeah. You were lucky enough to live near here right? I do this isn't it? NAture on my doorstep. Well, well, well done she's already slipped in the name of the project. She works for it and it's nature on your doorstep important is with the project engaging people in nature. But the reason we are here is like what you can hear around us. Let's just take a second to listen song some thrush there. You know, there's there were blue tits a minute ago and chiffchaff. So later on, it's just it's a fantastic spot. I was doing a little bit of filming in my local park, which has a pond in it right. And there was a Mute Swan there, preening and I stopped and watch. I just watched the Mute Swan preening for about 10 minutes. And I think it is the most relaxed I have been in like a year or something. It's something about watching somebody else work. You know, I mean, you know, sometimes when you watch somebody else work, you feel more relaxed. But just watching it methodically going over each set of feathers over and over again, just oiling them up and making itself all nice to work with. By just it was just a lovely thing. This is beautiful. And I'm just imagining it and I'm feeling relaxed just thinking about it. I'm just having memories of like as a child when you'd find feathers on the, on the forest floor or in the garden or whatever. And you'd sit and you'd sort of unzip the feathers and then zip them back up again. That's just so satisfying. So I'm getting, thinking about ordering things as well. Right. So what's new for you, I had a lovely walk at the weekend, actually, I went to a new spot. And it was just really lovely walking through the woods again, a really similar ancient woodland to this one just now. And yeah, just really enjoying all the different little flowers on the forest floor. And we found a sunny spot and I saw my first Tortoise butterfly and my first peacock of the year as well which is really lovely. So what about You? I'm very overjoyed at all the plants and flowers that are that just over the weekend suddenly seemed to just explode. Like everywhere I look there is actual petals and multi colours going on and lots of new leaves. So very happy to see that again. Finally, go on. Again as ever, we are not here just for our own nature news. We want to keep you up to date with what's happening in the wider world too. And there were two stories that I wanted to flag. Again, I mean, well, I think almost 700,000 people across the UK took part which is just fantastic. And the big winners are gold finches and wood pigeons. But there are losers as well. And you know, we continue to see declines in in what birds that I would have identified in my childhood as very common garden birds like house sparrow the other one was like a wee success right for for a community in North Beric a Tesco in North Berwick had put up some nets which were going to block returning House Martin's And, and there was a local campaign and we give a bit of support and lots of people give support to that local campaign. And the good news is that the nets come down. And it's just great to have good news for a change. It's really nice. And it's also showing the power of community coming together. And how really having a common cause really can make successes. It can absolutely so well done to the people of North Barrick and well done Tesco as well for doing the right thing. It is spring. And one of the things that we we can look forward to most in spring is like is the dawn chorus. And it's not quite Dawn, but it is very chorusy here at the moment. Right, you know, What's it like having this right, literally on your doorstep? Yeah, definitely feel really lucky. I love coming out both before the birdsong and you start to hear it kind of like trickle in like the first birds singing and then then you hear like a tidal wave of all of them. But even coming out now as well. It's such a beautiful cacophony and soundscape of birdsong. So many different species, you know, well, let's let's just turn not the parts of it it's all the little bits that you know, each one of those is a little bird claiming their patch. Absolutely. And they're such tiny creatures as well making such large noises. I think that's the thing that fascinates me the most is their ability to like magnify, and amplify their voices over such a large area, because it's a thick open space, because it is one of the things that makes my head explode. Right, it's when you think of particularly some of the smallest parts do you think about a wren right now there's quite often wren singing it the end of my street in ton.. And I've got a main road. I've got two railway lines have got a railway good yard behind me. And the thing I can hear most in the mornings is this wren just given that like, like absolutely Marvel laser gun stuff? It's incredible these little, but it's almost like the smaller the bird the louder it is right? Yeah, it's why are they doing right? Why why why are birds sing it this time of year? There's there's lots of different reasons, I think. So obviously, it's it's springtime, is breeding season, it's about ensuring you've got the best patch. And so whether that means having greatest access to high quality foods, or access to ???, etc. These small birds are really like fighting for their patch and or even attracting, attracting mates as well. So I think there's a there's a, there's a lot to be said about the quality of birdsong in terms of as a bird, looking at another bird or listening to another bird, you're listening to the quality of the song, which means the complexity often as the song but also the volume, how many songs you've learned exact, etc. So basically, the better your song is, whatever your criteria for better is, that's gonna get you breeding rates and food. There's, there's something as well by it's like the birds that start singing first are the one with specific eyes that capture the the light, like first most easily, so they're able to pick up like the slightest change of light and they start singing first, and then that sets everyone else off as well. And I wonder if there's a bit of something about the predator thing as well, like they're, they're just coming out of the darkness of the cant hide anymore. So they start being like, wow, there isn't and it's a really interesting reading. I was out doing a bit of a filming with a Paul Walton, right? He's our head of species and a friend of the podcast did the Big Garden watch one with us and, uh, knows, like absolutely everything right? One of the things he was telling me we were recording and one of the things he was telling me was that like, high sounds are harder for predators to pick up than lower sounds so one of the reasons that a lot of these birdsongs have these really highlight you can hear that does a Song Thrush behind us right? going absolutely mad, right. And one of the reasons these birds have got like so many high notes is that it is it is harder for a predator. Note when we are thinking about the nature on your doorstep side of things are you thinking about at least from Why did the birds sing and thinking? Think of the question, why do we listen? Right? Why do you think it is that this captures human imagination. So maybe like romanticising the past way. But we might have more so lives in nature, like CO evolved with the birds who are obviously here much longer before humans were. So it's like something very deep within us that kind of response to them singing around us. I don't know how they got used to the birds starting to sing at 4am. Because to be honest, that drives me mad It's a bit too much. But then for me, there's also something that comes up, like brings up a lot of imagination, this idea of like a symphony symphony, like an orchestra of Birdsong, like all the different parts, and they're all kind of playing their role, and like interweaving with each other, that brings up a lot of imagery for me when I'm walking through the woods. And I think it is one of the like, I'm going to show my biases here. Because I know we're a wildlife charity, but we do also have birds in the name, right. And one of the reasons that I think birds continually are, are one of the groups of animals that engage and enthuse people is, it's because they do this, right, they do this thing, which they're doing for their reasons, but which can move us and reassure us and make us feel. I mean, like, I think, you know, when I think about places I go, particularly this time that you're one of the I can I can close my eyes and know where I am by the birdsong, right? You know, whether I'm at whether it's, you know, I'm in an, you know, up a hill and there's curlews and skylark or I'm in a woodland and there's that Song Thrush, she's just won't stop, you know, or, or whatever. Um, you know, it's, it's that special emotional resonance, right? Oh, absolutely. I was thinking about this. When I was planning, we're planning for the podcast and I associate certain places and certain bird songs. And they might not be the prettiest nicest bird songs. For example, I think rooks when I think of my grandparents house, because there was a rookery. And but that's such a embedded noise from me from from being like a baby a tiny child to know. So when I hear Rooks I have a fondness for it, or listening to like you're mentioning curlews that just makes me think as you referenced the uplands whereas I think the coast but you can absolutely tell what time of year it is, you can absolutely tell where you are in relation to what you hear around you. And I think that's to have that connection is really magical. And I know that not everyone has that. So I'm really really grateful that I do have that connection with place and birdsong and people as well because people are part of that too so we've taken a little wander away from we were recording because there is one word that has been really come through is more appropriate when we're talking about song to listen to a song thrush. It has got a really cool musical kind of jumbled sound. Get kind of repeat the patterns three or four at a time but it's such a it's such a mad noisy song. I never know what can you do for STEM or a young person? Yeah, and just we just saw it pop out the ivy there and just to describe it, it's much bigger longer than the tits that you might see. It's got speckled belly and it's kind of big wanting to idea as well there's that chiffchaff So dig, dig dig dig, dig, dig dig in the background. They can't compete with a song from the song thrush especially if it goes for it just in all the noises brilliant. So what was the just the the difference in the mating call in the alarm call that all birds do. And so you'll be able to recognise the difference the mating call is melodic more of a song. And, and an alarm call is more like that, but it's more staccato and kind of single beats rather than a kind of melody. And so this is something nice to pick out because you you don't have to know any sort of birds tend to be able to decipher them. The most obvious ones that means Blackbird because they the sound you most often hear from a black bird is when there's a cat in the street or you're walking down the street and it was shouts blackbird song is so beautiful that Paul McCartney wrote a song about it. Now, we've already talked a little bit about what I talked about about like the wren on my street, but we are in a beautiful rural location here. Thank you, Katie. But you don't have to be in the countryside to enjoy birdsong and to prove that I went out with my little recorder a few weeks ago just right at the beginning of when birds were starting to spin sing back in March to see what I could find in just literally a half hour walk around my neighbourhood in urban waste Edinburgh. It is the middle of March is a sunny morning in a West End, where I live pretty noisy around here, train line behind us. There's always helicopter sirens or the special sounds of Gorgie but there's also a lot of birdsong in behind here so I am just feeling my way but birdsong I'm learning as I go along just gonna take a little recorder and see how many different things I can hear It half an hour or so in a sea was warming up so let's go out things are starting to sing a wee bit for a minute as we Robin is kind of skulking about in the bushes just kind of scratching noises It's not quite the full song I mean it started off with a kind of little alarm call take the dude in the scratchy thing and then in the distance that's like supercharged one and that's a wren Yeah, I can see you you know it's really come through precisely there there was a so woodpigeon so it is presumably off to nest somewhere so often these trees somewhere for me can't really see but I think there's two things the the constant kind of rolling bubble quite metallic noises I think is gold finches that was a train just recorded because i like trains falling this very insistent on that bump up, up, up, up, up up. So you can get bit closer you're not gonna cooperate when we're singing from when it stopped but anyway, What that was was a great tit. In the books I remember as a kid it was meant to say teacher teacher teacher. Donut, donut, donut. Hello, hello, hello. Great tit great tit great tit might be simpler anyway so the winds got up and there's a wee bit harder to hear things in the middle of this big holly bush in front of me it's like a like a bucket of noise so it got a bit windy, the odd siren few interruptions but I mean, really, literally half an hour's wandering about not bad wrens. robins goldfinch. you do not need to go somewhere remote What will it be like in a month or so? And is if by magic it's is the future because I recorded about three or four weeks ago. And as you can hear around us, like things have really ramped up there's a chiffchaff here, which wouldn't have been here. So you know, it's just a constantly moving target Birdsong, right, you know, is one of the great things about it. So, key What if people are in an urban environment? What what kind of things can they do try and engage with this? I think first and foremost, the thing to remember is that urban environments actually do really benefit birds as well. Like the Swifts my favourite bird had to get them in that they nest in the reshoots. If people don't know you weren't, you do work in a big swift project last year, and you are totally obsessed, a little bit. But they thrive in urban environments, they need their buildings for a home. That's what they've adapted to, since buildings existed, but now they're in buildings. And so that, yeah, it's a really important hotspot for for birds as well. And it's totally possible to see birds and hear birds and in all urban environments, as well. And so he is just going out trying to find a quieter area than like a busy road. And yeah, he able to tune in to birdsong there. One of the little tips that I picked up right from watching a video about this was just cupping your hands behind your ears. Yeah, it does, it creates little parabolas around your ears a bit like a bat or like a predator. So you can really kind of home in on those different noises. And you can, you can make it quite directional as well as your turn your head, you can definitely pick up different noises, really want to see on parabolas. that this birdsong that you're hearing in the background here, we've got a little parabolic mic, looking out over the glen here. And it's doing that job, you know, the job that your hands would do. And if you're not familiar with what a parabolic mic is, looks a little bit like a wok on a mic. Basically, it's like a wok with a microphone in the middle of it. It does a good job. It does a good job. And that's what let's let's have a little less, but that's what's gathering this song Just absolutely lovely. And there is an opportunity coming up, okay for people to not just to get out here and see stuff in their patch, but also contribute science. Right, exactly. And so at the end of this month, the beginning of May so from the 29th of April until the second of may. There's a global event which is called the city nature challenge, and it takes place across the whole globe, and it's one of the largest citizen science projects all over the world. And you can take part by downloading, it's an app, it's a free app on your phone called i naturalist. And over the course of that weekend, any records that you take on your phone, so you can take a picture, or you can take a sound recording, which is often much easier for birds, because they don't see still very long. And you can record those. And the app helps you identify it. So if you're not that hot on your ID skills, you can practice them. But also they're verified by other ID ers, people who identify them, and if you get to verifications, it becomes a research grid, biological recording, and that all feeds into large national worldwide biological recording data. It's a bit like an even larger scale version of the big garden, birdwatch, and it's I think there's something really compelling isn't there about the idea that you can not just go out and have a nice time seeing something but you can contribute to science, right? Yeah, it's really important for an ecological research is having that people power behind it, because obviously, it's not possible for individual scientists to go out and do that much data collection and fieldwork. So having, yes, people all over the globe, being able to do that really contributes to what we need to focus on within urban areas for conservation. I think Cape Town won last year, so not quite make that with their diversity. But yeah, there's a bit of a Edinburgh V Glasgow thing going on? I don't know if I'm into it that much. But you know, that's what's happening. No, really crossing over getting a bit out last year. You don't want to take it you don't want to go too far. It's friendly banter. Basically encouraging. You might have your handbag. But no, it's definitely encouraging people just to go to somewhere they know, even on their street. I think my plan for at least one of the days of the city nature challenge is to go out and go and record all the weeds on my street because they've not been removed. And I'm really pleased about that. So I'll be out recording them. Right, just coming back to birdsong lasting Finish with favourite bird song, right. I'm going to start. chattering constantly popping, kind of very busy kind of noise. And to be honest, the other thing I like about it is if I didn't hear it, I wouldn't have known those goldfinches were there because actually, they're often in the taller things and I don't see them a lot, but I hear them every day. Yeah, absolutely. And so a flock of goldfinches is known as a charm, which it does sound like a kind of magical sound effect to going across the sky. favourite birdsong that's really hard, because I think I've got ones for like lots of different ways to pick one you can pick a couple of you. You mentioned earlier, I love listening to wrens. And I love watching them sing as well. You know, there's like iconic pictures of wrens singing on frosty mornings and you can see the vapour trail steam coming out. Oh my word. One winter I saw that in my front garden. I was literally just getting in the car scraping it off. And there's a wren in the road tree in the front giving it bsolute laldy breath coming out and this is like yes, I think I've achieved birding nirvana. This is amazing. I've completed wrens ultimately did pick like more than one but I think just the markers of seasons are really important to me so obviously the fit for summer but also the geese in the autumn as well. They're just over the offseason right now but they really make my Autumn but I think the one that stands out for me most in our memories is the Song Thrush because I hadn't heard it didn't know anything about it and heard it up a hill and just wow. I thought it was something like drum and bass or something. Now, we have had an email from Mandy Cohen. She says hello I have the day off today and was sitting in my kitchen reading when I saw blue tit flying up to the window and then a week. Over the course of the day it came back several times the last few times it looked like it would come in through the top what were the last couple of years I've been sitting in the same spot a lot lockdown. And I've never seen this behaviour can you recommend anything I should do to discourage it and do you have any idea why it's happening? Now? I asked the previously mentioned poor wall and font of all knowledge and responsible adult and responsible to write about this