Shortcast #84 Charlie Moores | Spring Dawn Chorus, Wiltshire

Off the Leash

I woke up this morning to a thrush’s liquid song cascading from the top of an oak tree about 100m away. Phrase after phrase, loud and clear. Not the repetitive song of a Song Thrush, nor the more mellow conversation of a Blackbird, but the melodious outpouring of a Mistle Thrush. Perched, typically, in the open, bold as brass, daring the local Sparrowhawk to interrupt, swept up in the power of his own remarkable voice as it bounced around off the stone walls of our home.

During lockdown I bought a parabolic reflector for moments just like this, and over the last few weeks I’ve been wandering around recording bird songs and layering them together. Common species (at least around here), including Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Great and Blue Tits, Nuthatch, and Wren. I’ve caught snippets of the drumming of a Great Spotted Woodpecker, the first Chiffchaff of the spring, a pair of Wood Pigeons sitting in the sun, our local Rooks flying overhead. I even went out on a frosty morning and caught a barking Roe Deer echoing through a piece of woodland I can see from my window. And now was a perfect time to record that beautiful Mistle Thrush.

The result is only short (less than six minutes) and to be honest no one morning sounds exactly like this, but forgive me for any ‘audio licence’ because I hope - as it does for me - this brief dawn chorus transports you to somewhere soothing, a place of abundance, and far, far from the headlines.