Dawn chorus visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 2nd May 2021

Date: 2nd May 2021 

Time: 4:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m.

Weather: dry, dark, rising sun, light wind, 2°C to 3°C

Today is International Dawn Chorus Day.

As I did last year, I spent an hour at my local patch site around St. Nicholas Church for a substantial portion of gökotta. 

I left home just before 4:30 a.m. and immediately heard a singing Blackbird and a singing Robin and a briefly calling Blue Tit.

As I walked down to the bottom of my road and the junction with Basildon Road, I saw a Red Fox.

As the dawn chorus developed over the next hour, the order that the various species (17) joined the symphony of sound was as follows:

Blackbird

Robin

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Song Thrush

Carrion Crow

Great Tit

Blue Tit

Dunnock

Wren

Woodpigeon

Blackcap

Magpie

Chiffchaff

Common Whitethroat

Goldcrest

Herring Gull

Green Woodpecker

From my recollection of my dawn chorus visit last year, there was a very loud and intense peak for a few minutes at just before 5 a.m.

This morning the experience seemed less loud and intense and there was no particular peak, perhaps a result of the lower temperature …. 2°C compared with 8°C last year.

However, the dawn chorus this morning included a calling and singing male Common Whitethroat which I struggled to see initially whilst it was still dark but eventually saw in and around the holly and hawthorn bushes in the central section of the cemetery. This was a particularly notable and exciting sighting since it was my first record for the site, bringing my site total for bird species to 53.

In addition to the Red Fox that I saw as I left home, I saw another at the bottom of the grassy strip that runs down from the church car park to St. Nicholas Lane and in this same area I saw 2 very confiding and approachable Reeves' Muntjac. Neither mammal contributed anything to the dawn chorus 😀.

Here are some photos taken on my mobile phone around the site and one when I arrived back home ....

I arrived back home at just after 5:30 a.m. and then listened to the RSPB’s live coverage on YouTube of the dawn chorus from some of their reserves around the UK until 7 a.m.

This was followed by some highlights between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. and then a live broadcast from Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin plus guests from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Site totals to date (2021 totals in brackets):

Birds = 53  (39)

Mammals = 6  (5)

Butterflies = 21  (5)

Dragonflies and damselflies = 7  (0)

Reptiles = 1  (0)

Amphibians = 0  (0)

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚

Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature