There’s a welcome reduction in aircraft during the coronavirus pandemic, which means our soundscapes aren’t scarred by the rumble of jets. I listened to the lovely soundscape unfold, with an extract from the early part of the chorus which is more sparse, the later part which is denser and richer in sound.
It was a lovely expedition to a local nature reserve, and I am intrigued to sample other nearby soundscapes with less human-induced noise. The gorge helps shield the valley from noise, it will be interesting to see if this works on the Somerset Levels as well, which don’t have the protection of lots of limestone rock.
Winter is coming, and that means that millions of starlings are on the move, from the deep cold of Continental Europe to the relative mildness of Britain’s winters. We are surrounded by the sea, which buffers the temperatures reducing the cold in the depths of winter. They join our resident starlings to roughly double the population in winter, according the the RSPB.
A starling is nothing that special individually, but in winter they roost communally in reedbeds1 these days. They group together in massive billowing clouds called murmurations2, this is thought to be trying to confuse birds of prey, who can’t home in on individual birds.
The unquiet sound of massed starlings
Once they’ve settled in for a while a massive racket starts to built up, this is a binaural recording best on headphones. The slight dread at 4:30 is when a bird of prey came along, it silenced the starlings closest to me but most of the roost was still rapping away to each other.
I managed to get myself to within fifty yards of one of their roosts on Ham Wall, in the Avalon Marshes complex of nature reserves, sited on only peat extractions. Although the starlings tend to roost somewhere on the reserves, which site they favour varies from day to day. When you’re that close to the roost, you get to hear the damnedest noise from these guys. A starling roost is not a peaceful place – they charge around low in the reedbeds, and as the day gave way to twilight I saw a bird of prey strafe in low over the water, though I couldn’t make out whether it won its supper for the night.
It was a slight challenge to stand my ground as I was buzzed by wave upon wave of birds incoming on all points very low. They didn’t go for me, although The Birds3 movie did come to mind.
Some tips if you are going to visit a starling roost
Choose a still day, the starlings take more time about their murmurations if they don’t have to fight the wind or rain
Go early in the season – November or December. The season persists often through to March, but starling shit is a pretty noxious smell. The hum builds up to an acrid stench as time passes
For the same reason, keep your mouth closed if you look up at phalanxes of starlings passing overhead 😉
Go on a weekday – fewer people and dogs with all that goes with that…
Avalon Marshes has a Starling Hotline 07866 554142 that tells you where the birds roosted last night. That doesn’t tell you where they will be tonight, but it lifts the odds. It’s a dead cert if you fancy the early morning sight when they leave, however.
Take a torch. It’s very dark when the birds pack it in, and the cold comes as the sun goes down.
Lake Vrynwy is a RSPB reserve which has a lovely ambience and little noise pollution. Geese and cuckoos in the morning, from the south side of the lake
I love curlews – they may be common as muck round these parts but the beautiful plumage, strange down curved bill and haunting bubbling call make them special.
Curlew at Melton Riverside
The little nature reserve at Melton has a free car park and you can get a view of the riverside mudflats near Wilford Bridge
Riverside
the board gives some of the history
It’s a pleasant walk along the river into Woodbridge, there is another small level crossing to get into the town. On the other side to Wilford Bridge going north there is a footpath toward Broweswell reedbeds and it’s worth a look at the birds on the riverside there too
Trimley Marshes – next to the massive container port of Felixstowe
SWT reserve Trimley Marshes is a long walk from the car park – about 2 miles to the hides. That’s good because it means you can sometimes have the place to yourself 🙂 On a bright winter day like today it is the Suffolk coast at it’s best, despite the surreal juxtaposition of the low rumbling sounds of the container port with the calls of the birds. The noise of the container port fades with distance. The port is behind you when looking at the birds, the sound wasn’t obtrusive from the second hide onwards.
tranquil view of the reedbeds at TrimleyBrent Geese arriving
I was treated to some lovely views of winter ducks – teal, wigeon, shelduck, and it was good to see a decent size flock of Lapwing.
recording of teal and wigeon – the wigeon are the whisting sounds and the teal are the regular metallic sounds
Handsome male Stonechat and his mate in front of the hide
Tucked away off the A1101 it’s easy to overshoot the turnoff because the bend of the road means the sign isn’t visible till you are nearly on the turn – even knowing that it caught me out. The low winter light was a treat on the leafless trees, painting them this lovely golden colour.
lovely golden light on the reserve
A lot of the water was still ice-bound, with a few channels of open water. All over the sailing club lake there was a marvellous ringing sound of teal. Not worth recording however since it sounded like the RAF were warming up their afterburners at RAF Honington.
The island only seemed to hold about twenty teal but their calls rang out over the water sounding like many more. I had the reserve largely to myself, with only a couple of photographers with hardy camo gear in the morning.
Visitor centre – newly upgraded in January
Monday seems to be the quietest day – the visitor centre wasn’t open though Suffolk Wildlife Trust did leave access to the toilets which is a kindness 😉 The small birds were staking out territories in the hazel coppice which was alive with the sound of competing great tits, which seem early to me – they haven’t started seriously marking out territory nearer home.
January has been quite sunny and mild this year so I visited the snowdrop walks in Walsingham abbey gardens. It was turning colder for the first day of the snowdrop walks
Only a few other people braved the cold on the first day
Mill Stream is a local nature reserve running along the boundary between Rushmere St Andrew and Foxhall Heath, starting from Rushmere Golf course and running through to Foxhall Road dip, opposite the Nuffield Hospital. I started from the Brendon Drive access parking my bike there – there is no car parking for this local nature reserve, and followed the Jubilee path marker 12
There’s some interesting local history – the large Oak trees mark the boundary between the parishes.
Goldfinch flock feeding near the old shooting range
Further towards Bixley there was a Boer War/WW1 shooting range, with the large sandbank there to catch any stray projectiles. Apparently brave souls hoisted targets above the wall that gave them some protection.
This extended bank absorbed stray WW1 projectiles from the shooting range
Robin, with long-tailed tits flock at the start
The reserve is surprisingly quiet, particularly at the northern end, though you’re never that far away from human habitation here.There are some muddy parts to the path where it runs close to the stream, particularly at the Rushmere common end.
It gets noisier towards the Foxhall Road Dip – the path does carry on across the road but it’s a fast road and visibility is dreadful.
This was a pleasant little gem – I’d driven past the Foxhall Road dip many times for years without knowing this was here
Sightings
If I will show up at noon I’m not going to see/hear that much 😉
Robin
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Blackbird
Dunnock
Starling
Jay
Magpie
Goldfinch
long-tailed Tit
Chaffinch
Woodpigeon
Info
Parking: none
dogs: present. Should be on leads according to the leaflet to avoid disturbing the wildlife
condtions: mostly dry but some parts were muddy across the width of the path. You don’t need wellies but decent walking boots help.
There is a little nature reserve by the canal near the football ground, an oasis of calm. The water is sluggish with green on top apart from where the water seems to well up from the river bed in these gently roiling clear pools. I don’t think the water makes any sound here, there is some background traffic noise which would mask it.
The nature reserve was improved by the Access to Nature project in 2012. It’s easy to be cynical about some of these projects but this one seems to have worked really well, and there was a lot more birdsong in this part of path by the canal than in the unimproved bits.
