Dusk Chorus

Summertime has never really been my favourite time of the year to bird.  I really enjoy the cold autumnal and winter mornings were parka jacket , hat and gloves are the order of the day and the landscape a pallet of browns and greys.  For me summertime birding always leaves me feeling like I've left the house without some really important kit.... bins; check, scope; check, camera; check, winter coat, hat,gloves and flask of coffee, no wait a minute, it's the middle of June I wont be needing those today!

No seriously summertime is a great time to bird, we get our terns, we get cuckoo's, we get all our warblers, swallows and martins return, we get the brilliant spotted flycatcher back, if your lucky you'll catch a hobby or two, in summertime the list of visitors is long and diverse.  The days are so long you can actually work and bird in the same day, something that's almost impossible in the short winter days.  But all these things are not the best thing about summertime, the best thing about summertime is the noise.

Go for a walk in the middle of December and the only sound that greets you is the sound of your own footsteps.  Go for a walk in the summertime and it's a completely different experience.  The constant calling of the young, the territorial singing of the adults, the countryside quite literally explodes with noise as the avian population comes to life, hunts, feeds, mates, defends and dies all to the tune of natures chorus in the daily struggle between life and death.

As I've busied myself around the garden over the last few weeks I've been treated to the dusk chorus from the birds who call the trees and hedgerows around the house their home.  I took a walk a few nights ago and took some shots, there were plenty of other birds calling but these were the ones who made themselves available to the lens.

Meadow Pipit

Linnet



Chaffinch

Wren

Blackbird

Yellowhammer