h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There is the most amazing birdsong at the moment.

At first it sounds like one bird and then you notice the rest of them. There is chirruping, tweeting and whistling at dawn and dusk.

As I dont hear any traffic here then it is very loud. There is one particular bird that has been singing away for the last few days.
I am sure he us trying to chat up the girls but it is the same tune everyday, and it lasts about 4 seconds. But it is very 'Elton John'

There a pair of magpies which I have seen every week, sparrows and pigeons, plus seagulls squawking. Other than that I have no idea what the birdies are. There are a few trees out the back but in the middle of the back gardens we have a carpark from a former garage repair shop so it is not as if it is very green. But the birds chirrup each day and sing away to their hearts content.

Belive it or not in the summer it gets quite warm (south facing flat) and I leave the window open overnight. Everybody that stays over whinges about the ing birds making a racket!!

At the moment it is very calming to hear them, but when they are having mating fights it is not so much fun

But the bird that sings a tune is nice to wake up to.

One of the neighbours has a couple of doves that he keeps inside and lets out for a fly around - drives the pigeons mad - they get very territorial about it!

I love birdsong first thing in the morning. Unfortunately, due to my living in Grangemouth there are no birds to wake us up as they're all dead. Or something.

mmm...I think I saw a pussycat..yeah!..I saw a pussycat

I have double glassing, but I can heard birds likethey are in my room too!

I personaly think the birds are exposed to heavy metal music!

I live by the seaside and the only birds we hear are the seagulls,they are very loud in the morning, but they make me very greatfull that I don't live in the middle of the city any more

manda

"One swallow doesn't make a summer", as they say.
I slept in a haysack the other week of an abandoned farm. It was wonderful, cosy and warm.
Birds and chickens had claimed the territory of the farm, the open stables stacked with wood and the courtyard. Early in the morning I woke up to this ochestra of birds singing their heads off.
There was rustling at the door of the barn we slept in and loud noises of a bird protesting. One of the birds tried to get in through the hole of the lock which I had stuffed with my coat to keep the chill of the night out.
A few minutes later a swallow flew in from the adjoining stable, nestled him- or herself on the electricity cable above our heads and started making his or her toilet.
Suddenly the racket outside seized to be. The birds fell silent again. The swallow in the stable (I think it was a swallow, it had the typical pointed end of the wings and a green/yellow belly) stuck his beak between one of his wings and dozed off.
And the chickens, what a noise they can make. There were two roosters and they had gathered on the steps of the house to bath themselves in the early morning sun.
Later we had our breakfast there. One of the chickens had hidden herself in between a pile of wood in one of the open stables. She couldn't keep her mouth shut. It must have been a difficult egg or so.
Anyway, after half an hour I got fed up with this constant cackeling. She was really getting on my nerves. I trew a stone towards the pile of wood. There she went, flying and cackeling around the corner of the farm.
Silence.
Finally rest.

Forget the birds, I've just seen my first red squirel. H damn near caught, but thankfully squirels are smarter than dogs. H still doesn't know where he went.

imagnes cartoonesque a red squirrel dog chase!

dog!

You've never seen a red squirel before? Ah, they are beautiful, quick and clever animals.

no squirrels here

...I have been to an island near Bournemouth / Poole, England which should be full of red squirrels, but I only got t-shirt: "did not see any red squirrels, but at least 10 peacocks".

umph, a bit like denmark. They sell t-shirts with hedgehogs to tourists. Most hedgehogs I saw were dead. Being run over by cars.

I have garden, but hedgehogs I do see....and about 5 cats!

last year we had bird who did not like people, but did not attack just made so much noise they could hired as town cryer!

I've just started a community bird survey on my local (ish) nature reserve, have organised local volunteers and come up with a way of surveying the site that should meet 'official' standards. I'm unfortunately a bit crap at recognition, but by the third survey I've found approximate territories for two pairs of linnets and a stonechat, and hopefully will be narrowing down other species in the coming weeks.

Anyway, I was over on the heath at about 7 a.m. on Wednesday and it was incredible. I've never seen so much birdlife, heard so much song or felt the work we're doing is so important

I can't wait for the nightjars to start in late May, makes the evening strolls even more worthwhile. Even so, for a reputable night owl like me to be considering making the dawn patrol a regular thing, it's got to be good!

We have some very confussed birds near where I live, they start their dawn chorus about 1 or 2 AM I think its to do with all the lights on the cinama that they leave turned on all night nice hearing them during the day though, when the traffic is quiet enough Very differnt noise of bird song here, in a city centre as compaired to over at my Fathers, with marshes and the fens not far from the house

sounds good. Up until now I've always lived in very urban surroundings. I'm hopeless with birds. If I do know the name of a bird in Dutch, I do not know it in English.

..... listen! I think it a cuckoo. Sounds like it! I really did hear one last week riding on my bike through the fields. Or it just might have been a fake one.

Heard some owls as well at night if I remember rightly. Bird watching, great occupation.

We have collared doves in a big horse chestnut tree in the back garden at my Fathers, they always seem to nest there each year, and make an lot of noise very early in the monring, strange doesn't seem to wake me but it used to annoy the heck out of my brother when that was his bedroom of course now, we have a mentally derranged cat who gives her own 'dawn chorus' of wailing whilst standing outside the bedroom doors at about 2 AM when she beigns to get bored if no one is downstairs

bird song is the best way to wake!much better than the clock radio screaming in your ear and I believe more reliable.I have an obessive side to my nature about being on time(actually I am always too early)this involves setting a old fashioned wind up alarm clock then for ten minutes later I set the radio alarm.This is in case I hit the snooze button.I am sorry for rambling but the birds always wake at dawn,doesn't matter if there is a power cut you can always rely on the dawn chorus.
The best song is the wrens song it makes you glad to be alive

Troglodytes Troglodytes!

Most of all I like the the birds that sing in the evening, at nightfall.

There is this other bird, boomklever in Dutch. It clings to walls. The palace at the Dam in Amsterdam is the home of a whole colony of those tiny little birdies. One dark december evening a couple of years ago I stood there and wondering what the heck was going on. I nearly went deaf with the noise they make, I start looking around, there wasn't a birdie in sight. Suddenly a whole dark cloud comes loosens itself from the building and I noticed the whole front and side wall of the building were covered with those birdies that cling to it.

Bats!they don't sing but they screech pretty impressively and they are ace flyers.We get loads of them round here at night,I really like them and think they are kind of

'Boomklever' I wonder if that is right. On the Dam they are little and brown, if they had blue bellies I would have noticed it. Perhaps they're not 'boomkruipers' I just don't know.

Yes, bats are lovely. A few live just around the corner of my street, meet them at night when I stroll to park for a last walk with the dog.
At times I thought I was under attack, flying that low over my head.

a lot of different "boomklevers" , but general part it is "nuthatch"

look at the "Sitta..." on this list
http://home.planet.nl/~kooij395/Lijsten/Vogels/seicercus.html