Rye Harbour Soundscapes: Recent Episodes
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A clear close Skylark recording of 50 seconds is then repeated, BUT slowed down 5 times to reveal the subtle phrases more clearly.
THIS HAS SIX VERY LOUD BURSTS OF CETTIS WARBLER CALL, DO NOT TURN YOUR VOLUME UP HIGH.
The first burst of Cettis Warbler call is at 6 seconds and is distant and quiet, but at 53s, 1m59s, 2m30s, 3m25s, 4m9s, 4m30s and 4m54s it is very close and very loud.
Other calls are Common Whitethroat at 3s, 53s, 1m50s plus others, Sedge Warbler at 3.30 plus others, Lapwing at 1m30s and Collared Dove cukooing.
12th May 2022
In the scrub, beside a reedy ditch there are many birds singing at first light.
Reed and Sedge Warblers, Common and Lesser Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Cettis Warblers, Linnets, Woodpigeons and a brief Cuckoo.
In the distance are the waves on the shore at high tide.
A calm early morning in May with fishing boats leaving the harbour, waves on the shore and the sounds of our breeding birds:
Oystercatchers, Skylarks, Little Terns and Avocets.
.. this time including the sound spectrogram that shows a quick "warm up" before the first and before the last boom. Other reedbed birds singing are Sedge and Reed Warblers. By John Willsher recorded 24th April 2015.
A mono recording this morning from the viewpoint by John Willsher. The deep boom is surrounded by many Reed Warblers. You might need your headphones or bass whoofer to hear it, it's low about 30 Hz
Today at the hide at Castle Water it was calm and grey making the sounds of the birds very clear. This recording starts with a loud Coot that was so close you can hear it diving. A background of Teal calling and the louder whistling of Wigeon. In the background the Cormorants are starting to display on their treetop nests with a deep gutteral call. Then the Wigeon get very excited as they try to impress a spare female.
Camber Castle is home to many pairs of jackdaws and most nests have now hatched. These chicks are in a hole above the main entrance and sound quite old - they will soon be exploring Henry VIII's castle ruins.
At Castle Water the background noise is a continuous squeaky sound. It is the begging calls of nestling cormorants demanding to be fed. They peck at the yellow patch around the bill until the adult lets them in... and the chicks head and neck goes right into the parents throat where their fishy meal is waiting. In this track there are two deeper sounds that are adults in the colony still nest building.
A good selection of species behind the constant background of squeaking of cormorant chicks and a foreground chiffchaff. The supporting cast in order of appearance is chaffinch, oystercatcher, cuckoo, shelduck, woodpigeon, blackcap, sedge warbler, jackdaw and lapwing.
This is one of the last warblers to arrive and can now be heard singing from many patches of scrub. This track has two bursts of the dabadabadoo song.
The black and white headed male reed buntings are now singing from their song posts on the top of brambles or reeds. It is a repetitive tuneless rattle rather than a song.
For the last three years nightingales have been singing from the willows at the pits near to Rye Harbour village. Recently there have been up to three, but this morning I could only hear one. At about 37 secs there is a loud burst of echoing cettis warbler and a cuckoo starts at 54 secs.
The stormy weather calmed enough this morning to try recording some of the great range of bird song at the moment. The viewpoint at Castle Water offered a little shelter, so I sat and listened to a freshly arrived willow warbler singing repeatedly, while the loud burst of the resident Cettis warbler sounded out at 5 sec and again at 1 min 10sec. There is the background chatter of reed warblers and the occasional woodpigeon, herring gull and coot.
Despite the rough weather most of the warblers are in now and it is trickier to pick out the reedy ones. In this track the foreground bird is the reed warbler with repeated rhythm and a bit more tune than the earlier sedge. At about 23 seconds a background sedge starts and towards the end the overhead skylarks take over.
These warblers have only been back a couple of days, but this male was already nest building this morning (even during this recording). The song of the whitethroat is quite similar to some sedge warblers (below) and is usually delivered from bramble.
Now is the time to learn sedge warbler song because lots have just arrived and there are very few reed warblers. Sedge are grating and erratic and usually sing from brambles, whereas reed is more tuneful and rhythmic and sing more from reedbeds.
It is the start of their breeding season and displaying male redshank go through a series of calls before reaching the full yodelling in flight with quivering bowed wings. Starting with the "Tu-Tu" then building up to "Tudululululu........." the yodeling!
These large furry flies look like bees (or perhaps hummingbirds) and hover around early spring flowers, inserting their long straight mouthparts to sip the nectar to fuel their high energy lifestyle.
In the Wood today there seemed to be a duel between a newly arrived chiffchaff (singing its name) and a resident great tit (singing "teacher - teacher").
A big increase in Sandwich tern numbers today with about 500 at Ternery Pool bringing the sound level up with some raucous black-headed gulls in the foreground.
Ternery Pool, 13th March 2012 This track starts with skylark singing, then there is the mewing cat-like call of Mediterranean gull with the louder crawing of black-headed gulls.