Curious mute swan behaviour – observations from my childhood

I grew up in a small village which only had one swan couple and those were mute swans that resided on a small island in the middle of a large pond (both artificial features built as a part of a former manor landscape design). The mute swan couple appeared unusual because they lived in the …

Bird dawn chorus – a nature’s clock

Recently I wrote a post about bird dawn chorus which I have been listening to over the mornings of the last months. The dawn chorus truly marks a boundary between the twilight and the first light of the day (pre-dawn). As humans, we tend to associate it, at least culturally, with a beginning of a …

Bird dawn chorus – when to begin and who sings first?

For the last mornings I have been trying to wake up very early in order to meet also the more evasive nocturnal and crepuscular species. This had led to an additional observation regarding the timing of the beginning of the morning dawn chorus by the local bird populations. I have read that birds usually start …