Where have all the song birds gone?

22nd April 2012
10.30pm

The sun set at 9.21 this evening but dusk continues for around another hour.

Wednesday this week will already be longer than midsummer's day in southern England.

In one month from now, sunrise will be at 4.01 but it will start to get light two hours before that. The sun will set at 10.50 and dusk will continue for another two hours and 12 minutes. The day will be longer than 23 hours.

Everyday from now until midsummer's day will be the longest I have witnessed.

In five weeks' time I will experience my first full day with no darkness and this will continue for more than 50 days.

...

(All bird photos and sounds below are from www.birdphoto.fi)

It's half past ten at night and on my way upstairs I hear the cooing of birds in the trees. They remind me of of the time I was young in Africa when we used to keep chickens. When closing them up for the evening in their hutches, you could hear the comforting cooing sounds they make before going to sleep.

I have noticed lots of birds in the hedgerows, trees and fields in Finland. I was surprised to find a host of house sparrows in the bare winter hedges in someone's front garden a few weeks ago in the snow.

In recent years in Britain there seems to have been a decline in the numbers of songbirds and while sparrows are still around, it has been a while since I saw such a large host as I saw here.

The most common bird around here appears to be the rook. Large buildings of rooks are often seen, and while tidings of magpies are not so common, they are frequently seen in pairs. These are bigger than the magpies I am used to seeing in England and I see Eurasian jays almost daily but they are always solitary. I saw quite a large nide of Pheasants on my way to the shops just off the main street camouflaged in the recently exposed dry grass at the edge of the snow. A handsome male pheasant is often seen near the school and his squawks are heard in the evenings echoing in the near distance.

The most common bird sound, however, is definitely that of the great tit which are seen in abundance but usually on their own high up in the trees singing at full throat.

Coming back from the library earlier this afternoon, I saw what looked like a thrush. It's been a long time since I saw a song thrush and although this had the distinct mottled spotty chest of the thrushes I used to see when I was younger, this one seemed not quite as colourfull and was bigger than I remember them being. Not a thrush nightingale although I would love to hear one of these - it might have been a dark-throated thrush.

Perhaps I have solved the mystery of England's missing songbirds; they are all here in Finland.