SOUNDS OF NATURE

BY FELPHAM RESIDENT MICHAEL HARDING

You’ll undoubtedly have heard it yourself. You’re up early to walk the dog, put the bins out, or perhaps heading home after a lively night out, the dawn chorus will have been your soundtrack. An avian orchestra that’s more cacophony than symphony, it’s especially noticeable at this time of year as birds compete to communicate and attract a mate.

The Dawn Chorus peaks each day soon after sunrise. It’s best to start listening about an hour before to hear the build up to a natural choir as various species of birds join in the singing – and you don’t have to buy a ticket! The trill of the blackbird (still my, and a national, favourite and usually the first to sing), then the robin and later the songthrush, with their poetic repeated phrases, and others join the choir in their correct pecking order.

Competition, though, is fierce and increasingly challenging as manmade sounds threaten the previously cleaner sonic space. I have noticed in years of listening how some birds have developed methods to combat this problem by altering the pitch and volume of their calls. Extinction threatens if birds cannot find a mate at this time of year and the essential information shared by birds is critical to their ability to find a safe space to breed in the mating season. It has been calculated that one burst of song might contain enough information to fill a paperback book!

Chris Watson has heard more dawn choruses than most. To aficionados of experimental music he was once of Sheffield-based band Cabaret Voltaire, but now is best known as Sir David Attenborough’s go-to sound man. He won a BAFTA for the BBC nature series ‘Life of Birds’, and I’ve been fortune to work with him for over 25 years as his music publisher. Field trips with him are huge fun, as are the pub sessions after a long (often cold) day when he relates stories of how he nearly got eaten by a lion in Africa and other nearmisses. After you’ve heard Chris explain the glorious complexity of the chorus, you’ll never hear it the same way again.

Although Chris does have all the latest, high-end recording equipment with him, he actually spends most of his time listening. His experience means he can save huge amounts of time seeking the right locations (he won’t tell me where in the British Isles are the only three areas where man-made sounds have not interfered with the natural world). Did you notice during the pandemic how closer nature felt, how much more we were able to hear, perhaps how it was before the arrival of the combustion engine? It was a unique period in which many felt closer to nature and were able to reconnect to childhood memories of species now under threat …

It is now possible to make fantastic recordings of the natural world on your smart phone and thereby start to understand more how sound plays such an important part in all our lives, whether human or not. Get up, get out and listen! The early bird catches the worm!

Dr Davina Mahoney Dr John Harker Dr Mauricio Carrillo Dr Sharad Patel

If you have moved to this area, or are looking for a new dentist, we would love for you to come and join our friendly Bognor Regis practice. We pride ourselves on a partnership built on trust and mutual respect to improve your dental health. We aim to work with you to provide optimum dental care with the latest and advanced dental treatments, transparent costs and a friendly experience every time you visit us.

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