My parents are moving house and they are 81(my mother), 89(my father)!!!!

A strange and rather sad thing - our Dawn Chorus seems to have disappeared   When I first moved here about 6 years ago I used to lay in bed and happily listen to it. The early tweeters 'tuning up', then the individual birdcalls until they all blended into one magnificent swell of song that lasted for about half an hour and then quietened down. It was a rather moving experience. Not any more. The early tweeters are still there along with a few blackbirds but they sound more as if they're just muttering to themselves. I used to be aware of the different birds 'calling' to eachother, almost as though they were giving eachother a wakeup call. That seems to have stopped. This morning it made me feel unaccountably sad. Where have all the birds gone?

Without knowing your local geography it's difficult to answer, but I'd hazard two possible answers: garden pesticides and people paving over their front gardens for car parking, the former destroying birds' food supplies and the latter removing their habitats.  I understand that both of these are responsible for, inter alia, the decline in the urban sparrow population.  It's impossible to understate the importance of gardens for maintaining bird populations, and the paving problem in particular is having a bad effect; if you have a bit of garden, feeders and refraining from using pesticides can make a quite a difference even in a small space, even if habitats are disappearing around you.  Who needs to use pesticides on roses when the blue tits will deal with the aphids sustainably and for free?

We still have a rousing dawn chorus here by the South Downs, although it is unfortunately at this time of year punctuated by the local pigeons, er, noisily propagating the species in the big sycamore tree in front of the house.

 

I certainly hear the early tweeters, but then with any luck I get back to sleep, so I don't know if we get the full orchestra here. Lots and lots of birds around.

My neighbour has lots of bird feeders, I am afraid I haven't done so much this year.  I find the little buglars start up at first light, which is rather nice, but it's the magpies and hooded crows tap dancing with clogs on the roof that drive me mad.  My bedroom is sort of up in the roof.  And Mr. and Mrs. Pigeon are at it constantly.  What George once brilliantly described as 'Those special little hugs that Mummies and Daddies sometimes give each other" 

We get all manner of Tits (stop sniggering at the back Fotherington-Thomas), Sparrows, assorted Finches, lots of Wrens, Blackbirds, Missel Thrushes, Jays (in the Autumn for the acorns), and lately a bird I don't know the name of but it is blackbird sized and shape but has white splashes on its feathers.  Anyone any idea?

And Buzzards of course, circling nearby.  I have noticed less Owl noise though.

You ar quite rite Mary, Molesworth 2 wuld have sniggered no end    You are obviously better acquainted with St. Cuthberts' inmates than I!

Yes, of course, Owls and rain are not happy companions are they?

Blimey. I'm away for just 5 days and you buglers have left me with 5 pages of thread topics to wade through!  It's just plain inconsiderate, that's what it is. I'm a busy man, you know. Things to do etc. And now I'll be here for hours.