The Blackbird Sings

I've mentioned before how it is a great occasion for me to hear the Blackbird resume singing for the first time in the year. This usually happens in February or March in the North West of England where I do be. It's like the first Snowdrop flowers appearing at the end of Winter or the first buds of blossom at the beginning of Spring.

I haven't any "proper" sound recording equipment so I've been using my little Panasonic camcorder to record any interesting sound and extracting the audio from the resulting video file. That is what I have done with this recording made this evening (Wednesday March 4th) Here is the Blackbird Song in an MP3 format (3.6MB) I may make a Flash video of it showing the waveform display, if I can figure out how to do it.

Over the years I've noticed that the song develops as the year progresses. From a stuttering, though still beautiful, collection of doublets, triplets and assorted calls to a full bodied fully formed song.
The Blackbird will listen to other male Blackbirds and copy a segment of that birds song if it likes it, and incorporate that into its own song. I've heard them practice and develop little riffs over the course of Spring and Summer. Just think of that for a few moments, the little fellah sits there on his favourite perch checking out his rivals song. There must be a process in his mind that critically analyses the song and then goes "Oooo, I like that, I can work with that". He then weaves it into his own song and hopefully attracts a female with his artistry. So in this way the female too has a say as to what is deemed to be a "good" song.

I've been playing around with Windows Movie Maker after finding one of my favoured videos has gone missing from utube. This is the result.
I'm hoping I am not breaking any copyright by publishing this. There are hundreds of similar videos on utube and the like which do not appear to have fallen foul of the law. Still I think I'll investigate more. We don't want to be breaking laws now do we.

Blackbirds singing

Just a little note to say I've noticed the Blackbirds have just started singing again. I've heard the odd Blackbird throw out a few notes here and there over the past few weeks, but it was just today in my Mam's garden that I heard a couple singing to each other. Actually I think they were singing at each other.
Beautiful time of year, so much happening, nothing stands still, as if anything ever did.

The first flowers to show in the park

I noticed these lovely crocus this morning while cycling through the park. They always make me think of springtime so I had to stop and take a photo for posterity and for George and Mabel.

Bro' Robin pops by to say hello

This little fellow has been visiting my window-ledge for a couple of months now, which I of course encourage. To-day he's been very busy chasing rival birds especially Robins from his territory.
After a particularly ferocious battle with another Robin he spent a few minutes just sitting on the window ledge recovering. I sit just a couple of feet away on this side of the window, sitting very still watching. During this time he resumed eating but not before he had a good look through the window watching me. I think he was perhaps suggesting I put out some more mealworms for him, alas I had none.
I'm fairly sure he has a mate now, she very rarely stays for more than a second, grabbing some food then flying off. I don't think she trusts humans, which makes her a very wise little bird in my estimation.
There is a very definite pecking order amongst the birds visiting my feeders. Top of the heap is the Great Spotted Woodpecker who will chase every bird who tries to share the feeder. Next is probably the Nuthatch who also will not tolerate any other bird trying to share the same feeder. The Great Tit, Blue Tit and Coal Tit follow, in that order, bro' Robin rarely uses the peanut feeder. So when I saw the Nuthatch land on the window-ledge while our Robin was resting there, I thought the poor Robin was going to get chased. He was having none of it, he held his ground and was not at all intimidated by the Nuthatches posturing. So the two of them stayed there a couple of inches apart in some sort of stand-off while I grabbed the camera to record it. Needless to say by the time I got my camera set up "this bird had flown" .

What a wonderful feeling it is to have a wild bird trust you enough to eat out of your hand.
I travel through Sefton Park often and usually take some food with me for the birds and the squirrels. As I was feeding a few grey squirrels I noticed a few Blue Tits perching nearby showing a great interest in what I was doing so I took a chance to see if they would eat out of my hand. I was fortunate enough to have my camera in my other hand, just in case, and I was delighted when this little Blue Tit graced me with his company.
Bird activity has increased tremendously over the past few weeks as they have started to mark out territories and seek mates. I have seen Tits, Blackbirds and Collard Doves getting material with which to build nests too. I am sure they have some recognition of the people they decide to trust. A couple I see in the Park often, feeding the birds, have had the birds actually sitting in their hand eating rather than just swooping in and then flying away.
Thank you little one for bringing so much joy into my life.

Lark Lane
Music composed by Bernard Herrmann
from the film "Taxi Driver"