Whats happenned to the dawn chorus/

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
I'm not a twitcher, but the 3am-er's are probably Robins, I believe they stake territorial claims at that time of day.

Ahh Zee Robins are staking zeir places in zee sun vit zeir tovels!!

I've noticed this, was at my OH's, and normally we're awoken at 4am by cawing crows in the morning however just the other day there was only some small birds making light noise, thankfully, as it was a muggy night and didn't want to close the window.

We have 3 large Aspen trees in our front garden, so really, I don't mind the sound of birds in the morning at all.

As an aside, we were on a guided nature tour up north a few years back and suddenly the guide proclaimed

'Can you hear that wonderful noise?'

we looked at each other wondering what he was going on about. Turns out he was referring to the hissing noise the leaves on Aspen trees make when blown in the wind, but, up until that moment, I don't think I'd ever really noticed it!
I find it quite soothing now and I miss it when I am staying elsewhere.

So that, combined with living next to a busy road (mostly during the day) means that noise doesn't bother me in the slightest, not even the occasional Owl that appears.

same here. i've noticed the birds singing between 2am and 3am when i have my bedroom window open.

It is usually about 3 or 4am here right now, 5 or 6, earlier/later in the year, etc.
Alive and well sitting in the cherry tree outside my window... sadly.

I don't understand what the problem is - I see it all as being part of nature just like the weather, and there is no point getting bothered about it. Instead, just go with it and see it as being nice background noise (with or without the hissing Aspen and passing Lorry sound effect).
 
Location
Herts
Lots of twittering in the laurels at 03:00; 3 Magpies fighting over a tray of nuts at 06:00; squirrel chasing 2 Wood Pidgeons; Jay just been for breccies. Intown, 20 miles from Hyde Park.
 

Amanda P

Legendary Member
Most of you seem to be describing a few garden birds cheaping away outside the window.

The real dawn chorus only really happens at stupid o'clock in the spring when all the resident birds are well into setting up their breeding territories, and the migrants are just beginning to arrive and singing their heads off to do the same. It can be deafening; it's certainly quite hard to pick out individual voices.

That winds down as singing males snag themselves mates (in many migrants, the females arrive in a later wave and take their pick from among the furiously singing males) and transfer their attention to alternately raping them, making sure no-one else does, and trying to have it away with all their neighbours' mates.

There's sometimes a little peak of singing activity in some species while eggs are incubated and males have less to do. Then when chicks hatch, it's all hands to the pump to feed them for a couple of weeks until they fledge, and then the whole thing begins all over again. Particularly in migrants, this cycle is well synchronised, so you do find that these species' song stops altogether for two or three weeks, and then they all spark up again within a day or two of each other.

By the time we get to July and August, the breeders are worn out - literally. They're typically very thin - they've put all their energy into raising chicks and singing, and not enough into maintaining themselves. Plus as soon as breeding's finished, they start moulting. While moulting, their flight is compromised, because some feathers are missing. Singing takes up a lot of energy that could be spent growing feathers, and it's best not to draw a predator's attention to yourself by singing when your ability to get away is reduced. And there's no point in singing anyway, since the females are also moulting and not interested in mating. So during the moult, birds go very quiet and hide away in the bottoms of bushes quite a lot.

Not only do they re-grow most of their feathers (in small groups in passerines, so that they can always still fly), their reproductive organs shrivel to almost nothing, saving weight. In that state, they produce almost no hormones, so their sex drive declines - until day length triggers those organs to swell (to surprising proportions in some species - you wouldn't believe how sex-mad dunnocks are).

Robins sing almost all the year round. They're one of the few species in which females sing, and both sexes hold territories in the winter. There's a sort of uneasy truce between males and females during the breeding season.

Flocking birds like sparrows and starlings do a lot of sort-of singing and calling all the time, but since they are colonial breeders, it's more about chatting with the neighbours and organising foraging parties than "oi, are you looking at my bird!?"
 

goo_mason

Champion barbed-wire hurdler
Location
Leith, Edinburgh
Never mind that - it's the bloomin' seagulls on the flat roof above my bedroom that keep me awake all night. It's not just the screeching & squawking - they clatter & bang about so much that I'm convinced they're doing Riverdance in clogs up there. How I long for a shotgun and a ladder in the wee small hours.... :laugh:
 

Mr Phoebus

New Member
I wish there wasn't a dawn chorus here. It's all magpies here which gather on the field opposite. What a bloody horrible racket they make.
 
U

User482

Guest
Yup, as a new father, I can confirm that the seagulls are noisy feckers in the early hours. Sparrows seem to join in from about 3am.
 

longers

Legendary Member
Excellent post Uncle Phil, thanks.

Not many birds round here, at dawn or otherwise, there's some spots that feel almost eerie because they're so quiet.
You don't have to go far to find them but there's not much to eat locally. Too many bricks and cats I think.
 

Mr Phoebus

New Member
Was out cycling a few weeks back and not only heard my first cuckoo, but heard two of them.
 

Davidc

Guru
Location
Somerset UK
Very noisy in the spring and up to the end of June, it's quieter at present - always is from late July onwards.

The ones that don't stop are the crows (we have a big colony in the trees outsied the house), the seagulls which live in the park next to us (and they're really loud), and that irritating noise from pigeons never goes away.

The crows are clever little (actually quite big) beasts. Ever since we helped one of them when it hurt itself they come and greet my wife and me, but they also recognise the members of a group of yoofs who decided to catapault stones at their nests in the spring. They attack them every time they go past, quite viscious too. They also hate dogs and most regular dog walkers keep their distance after a few incidents.
 
OP
OP
classic33

classic33

Leg End Member
Its not just the seasonal variation or the the location. Just less heard every year, for the last few years.
You can see them either on the wing or in the trees. They just seem to be missing in the morning.

Cuckoo, tits, corncrake, they all seem to be on the way out. For the twitchers there are about half a dozen albino crows locally. Reliably informed that they're all females. Oddly, thy're larger than either the black or carrion crow.
 

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
Its not just the seasonal variation or the the location. Just less heard every year, for the last few years.
You can see them either on the wing or in the trees. They just seem to be missing in the morning.

Cuckoo, tits, corncrake, they all seem to be on the way out. For the twitchers there are about half a dozen albino crows locally. Reliably informed that they're all females. Oddly, thy're larger than either the black or carrion crow.

Where are you, classic33? There's no shortage of tits in my neck of the woods. Though there is definitely a shortage of woods around here. I regularly hear grey wagtails and goldfinches early in the morning, though the great tits, thankfully, have stopped waking the estate up for now. And I'm fairly sure that, come the first rainy night, the blackbirds will start singing their ''Worms for breakfast!'' songs.
 
Top Bottom