A Birdsong Garden - Autumn Passage

A BIRDSONG GARDEN - AUTUMN PASSAGE (320kbs-m4a/32mb/14mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 18th October 2021

From the young chiffchaff taking its first words, to the cacophony of pheasants and mallards over the river, in autumn Geoff and his family begin to appreciate the annual visitors on their doorstep as the swallows come...and go once again.

The lockdown through the spring of 2020 gave much space for reflection about life; and for wildlife sound recordist Geoff Sample an opportunity to review the five-year period spent in the remote and quiet Northumbrian home he sought out, to record and study the birdsong of a typical rural garden.

Part of a five-part series, 'A Birdsong Garden' is a mix of memoir, natural history, folklore, birdsong and spacious soundscapes.

Geoff takes us through Autumn and considers how living close to and listening intently to nature can enrich our lives.

Presenter and Producer: Geoff Sample

Executive Producer: Clare Freeman

Commissioned for Culture in Quarantine, funded and supported by The Space Arts, BBC Arts and Arts Council England.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in August 2020.

Two-barred Greenish Warbler, Spurn 18th October 2021

A Two-barred Greenish Warbler was found at Spurn last Saturday. The bird was discovered by visiting birder David Bevan, but identified as a Yellow-browed Warbler. However, sometime later local birder Adam Hutt reidentified the bird as a Two-barred Greenish Warbler, a first for Spurn and the ninth for UK.

Figuring there would probably be a large crowd on the Sunday, I waited until today to make my way to the east coast. I went on news of the Two-barred Greenish Warbler still being present and arrived on site mid-afternoon. I had brief views almost as soon as I arrived, in the understory of the Sycamore on the left of the photo above. Over the next few hours I had several views spread about the small wooded area next to the Spurn Discovery Centre, but each time only for a couple of seconds. Eventually, off to the right of the photo, I did have a series of sustained views out in the open, fortunately far enough away for me to be able to focus my bins!

Photo by Adam Hutt | Photo by Gill O'Neil

Previous records:
1987 Isles of Scilly - Gugh, first-winter, 22nd to 27th October.
1996 Norfolk - Holkham Meals, 15th to 16th October.
2003 Isles of Scilly - Bryher, Samson Hill, 27th to 28th September.
2006 North Yorkshire - Filey, 16th to 18th October.
2016 Orkney - Papa Westray, 1CY, 9th October.
2017 Shetland - Foula, Mucklegrind, 2CY+, 30th May.
2017 Dorset - St Aldhelm's Head, 1CY, 15th to 18th October.
2019 Suffolk - Orford Quay, 1CY+, 13th October.

Migrant Hawker, Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB 15th October 2021

Another visit to Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB yesterday was not much different to two days previously. The first-winter drake Ruddy Shelduck was still at Marsh Covert and the Cattle Egret was having a break from its cattle escort duties on an island on the Reception Pool. Conditions were warm & the sun was out resulting in many Common Darters, a Migrant Hawker (male) and what looked like a Southern Hawker wizzing around the top path, but it was just too fast to get decent views. Birds of note included thousands of Pink-footed Geese wheeling about, a Ruff and a Reeve, brief views of a Great White Egret taking off, Coal Tit, Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Ruddy Shelduck, Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB 13th October 2021

A visit to Burton Mere Wetlands today was fruitful. The long-staying first-winter drake Ruddy Shelduck was present on Border Pool, giving distant and intermittent views, until it flew to Marsh Covert, giving much better views. This bird was first reported on 16th July 2021. The last Ruddy Shelduck I saw in Cheshire & Wirral was at Parkgate on 24th September 1972.

A Cattle Egret was escorting the herd of cattle around the Main Scrape. There were many Shoveler, Gadwall and Teal. Black-tailed Godwits were spread out over the whole of the reserve. A Raven flew over calling loudly, a Ruff was on Centenary Pool from Border Hide, with a pair of Stonechats on the edge of Border Pool.

Long-toed Stint, Swillington Ings 11th October 2021

Last Friday, 8th October, an adult Long-toed Stint was identified at St. Aidan's RSPB (Swillington Ings) in West Yorkshire, by the Swillington Ings Bird Group. At first it was thought to be a Temminck's Stint, then changed to a Least Sandpiper and later that evening, after photographs had been examined, the true identity was revealed as the third UK record of Long-toed Stint.

Since the last record of Long-toed Stint was in 1982 it was pretty clear many birders would want to see this bird. I avoided the crowds over the weekend, numbering 2000 on Saturday! I played it cool & waited until today, arriving on site mid-afternoon. It was quite a long walk from the RSPB car park to Astley Lake. There was a small crowd of about forty birders on site. The bird was out of view asleep behind a Lapwing when I arrived. After about fifteen minutes it awoke and went about its business of feeding all over the small island nearest the crowd. There were only about twenty birders remaining when I departed after the Long-toed Stint flew to another muddy island further away.

Previous records:
1970 Cornwall - Marazion, 7th to 8th June
1982 Cleveland - Saltholme RSPB, juvenile, 28th August to 1st September

Video by Pete Hines

Discovery - A Sense Of Music

DISCOVERY - A SENSE OF MUSIC (320kbs-m4a/61mb/26mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 2nd August 2021

Music can make us feel happy and sad. It can compel us to move in time with it, or sing along to a melody. It taps into some integral sense of musicality that binds us together. But music is regimented, organised. That same 'sense' that lets us lean into Beethoven makes a bad note or a missed beat instantly recognisable. But does that same thing happen in the minds of animals? Can a monkey feel moved by Mozart? Will a bird bop to a beat?

Do animals share our 'Sense of Music'?

Charles Darwin himself thought that the basic building blocks of an appreciation for music were shared across the animal kingdom. But over decades of scientific investigation, evidence for this has been vanishingly rare.

Fresh from his revelation that animals' experience of time can be vastly different to our own, in the award-winning programme 'A Sense of Time', presenter Geoff Marsh delves once more into the minds of different species. This time he explores three key aspects of musicality: rhythm, melody and emotional sensitivity.

Geoff finds rhythm is lacking in our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. But it's abundantly clear in a dancing Cockatoo, and internet sensation, named Snowball. He speaks with scientists who have revealed that birds enjoy their own music, but may be listening for something completely different to melody. And Geoff listens to music composed for tamarin monkeys, that apparently they find remarkably relaxing, but which sets us on edge.

In 'A Sense of Music', discover what happens when music meets the animal mind.

Produced by Rory Galloway
Presented by Geoff Marsh

The Poet Laureate Has Gone to His Shed - Chris Packham

THE POET LAUREATE HAS GONE TO HIS SHED - CHRIS PACKHAM (320kbs-m4a/116mb/51mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 4th July 2020

If the poets of the past sat in their garrets dipping their quills in ink and waiting for inspiration to strike, our current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has a more mundane and domestic arrangement, scratching away at a poem in the shed. As he works on The Owl and the Nightingale, any distraction is welcome, even encouraged, to talk about poetry, music, art, sheds, sherry, owls, nightingales and to throw light on some of the poem's internal themes. However, Lockdown has meant he has had to reach out to technology to find those interruptions.

Wanting to know more about the owl in the poem, Simon talks to naturalist Chris Packham, isolating in his home in the New Forest. Their conversation ranges from ornithology to Asperger syndrome, from Punk music to owl pellets and from the environment to the ability to fly.

The Poet Laureate has gone to his Shed is produced by Susan Roberts.