The Singing Aerial

Sat on my 6 meter band halo aerial:



Sorry about the heavy breathing.
Forgot to stay away from the camera when not using a directional microphone.

Blackbird Singing

I don't care how much the wind blows I'm going to sing:

Song Thrush

Just happened to glance out of the kitchen window at the right time:







and a bit of video from the previous day:

Friday at the Flicks - Blackbird Singing at Dusk

As mentioned yesterday this was the first time I tried out a more effective wind shield and even on the couple of occasions when the breeze turned blustery it was hardly picked up by the microphone. Unfortunately no shield can cut out the sound of traffic and local lawn mowers.




I have yet to see how it behaves in stronger windy conditions.

Song Thrush

Thursday a Song Thrush was singing from before 6.30 in the morning until at least 7.30 p.m. with a few breaks. Often it was in the top of a tree near my back door which was when I managed to photo and video it.







It stopped singing for a short period while three House Sparrows were having a noisy argument.

Song Thrush Sings

I have heard a Song Thrush singing very close on several occasions but it usually remains well hidden from sight. Finally, yesterday I spotted it high up in one of next doors apple trees but still out of clear sight:



Fortunately it would move its position from time to time and eventually it was in the clear for a decent shot:




The Song Thrush even stayed long enough to catch a video clip of it deafening me:

Song Thrush

Firstly - sorry if you were trying to take a peek in the Great Tit nest last night. While a video was uploading I had to stop the streaming video. Unfortunately it took ages to get the file up to YouTube.

Recently there has been a Song Thrush belting out its song very close by. Up to yesterday evening I was never able to see where it was but by the volume it must have been close. Finally it decided to choose a place where I could see it from the kitchen window so set up the Hitachi DVD cam to get some of the song. It shows how loud the bird can be when the sound had to go through the conservatory open door through to the kitchen.



A Blackbird can also be heard in the background. That was a very short section of the song which went on for about an hour.

A Bit of Colour

I was looking round the garden this morning after I had topped up the food on the bird table. A few days ago I noticed a little clump of yellow crocuses had appeared, along with a few snowdrops, in one of my planters. Also there are a couple of heather plants in full bloom and a variegated ground hugging evergreen is looking a particularly cheerful sight on a grey morning. The Corylus avellana 'Contorta' (Corkscrew Hazel) has been showing catkins on its bare branches for quite a while now.





To cap all that as I returned to the back garden there was a Robin singing away in a nearby tree. I went in and got the Zoom H4 recorder and captured a snippet of his song which can be heard by clicking HERE. I hope this works - if not please let me know. It should use whichever mp3 player is on your computer.



Even though there seems no end to the cold dark weather for a while yet there are at least a few signs that Spring is on its way.