Singing in the Morning

Walking up to the woods at the weekend, it was good to hear a Song Thrush singing from the top of an oak tree. Along with other farmland and woodland birds there has been a serious decline in Thrush numbers from the 1960’s. Between 1970 and 1990 the species declined by 54% on farmland and 27% in woodland. The good news is that numbers have now stabilized, with a Devon breeding population now standing at 45,000 pairs. 

Song thrushes are particularly vulnerable to hard winters when frozen ground makes feeding difficult, but recent spells of mild winters have seen their numbers rise. They are partial migrants, with most birds remaining in their breeding area throughout the year. Some birds move south to France and Spain in the winter and are replaced by others moving south from Scotland. The chances are however that the bird I heard singing was a bird that decided to stay in Honiton over the winter.

The song thrush song is one of the most distinctive of all birds. Although the song is similar to that of the blackbird it can been clearly distinguished by the way the bird repeats phrases. Their song is much more complex than other members of the thrush family with individual birds having a repertoire of over 100 different phrases. At this time of the year they can be heard singing to stake out territories early in the morning with the rest of the day spend feeding. As the days draw out we expect to hear their fantastic song throughout the day.

One of the Roundball wardens, Dave Witt is our bird expert and responsible for the photo on this blog. We will be placing more of Dave’s bird photos on our webpage soon.