About the Project Stories
The orchard sits between the edge of the village of Chinnor in farmland which leads to the wooded escarpment of Chinnor Hill, part of the Chiltern Hills. This means it has over time had a wide range of visiting birds. Some who prefer open farmland some who like woodland and others who choose to nest and roost near buildings. Over the period of a few hundred years the bird life must have evolved as the human activity changed and dwindled to very little by 1920.
It is most likely that there were birds living in and around the houses until at least 1911 when we know the houses were still occupied. The occupants of the cottages may have had domestic fowl like chickens, ducks and possibly geese. These will have been an important source of food especially if they were laying and possibly of income if they could sell the eggs. They would rarely have eaten the birds if they were laying and it was usually cockerels that ended their life on the table.
From living memory we know that Derek Howlett kept chickens in there in the 1950’s and 1960’s when he lived in one of the houses just over the railway line. His stepdaughter Val remembers that he dropped his lantern into the well one night when he was locking them up. It may still be down there, perhaps if the well is ever excavated it may be found. An artifact that is a piece of remembered and documented history!
Since the clearance of the houses the land became very overgrown only entered by children looking for adventure or, in Autumn, foragers collecting apples and plums. By the 70s, 80s and 90s they mostly collected them outside the perimeter from the field surrounding the area. It was very difficult to get into the centre of the area by then through the dense undergrowth of brambles, ivy, nettles, elder and other tough plants. At that time there must have been a wide range of farmland and woodland birds nesting, roosting and feeding in there. There would have been plenty of clues to which species were there like nests, eggshells, droppings and feathers, even skeletons however these would have been difficult to get to. It was more likely that the bird life was quantified, by anyone interested, through sightings and identified bird song or calls.
Birds visiting neighbouring gardens to feed are a clue as they are observed to fly back into the orchard. Birds with fledglings also bring their young to feed in the gardens. Young greater spotted woodpeckers are very odd looking. The one in the picture is very clearly a young male with the bright red marking on his head. He is being fed by a female, presumably his mother who has a red rump but no marking on her head. This has been observed a few times in different years with evidence of both parents feeding their rather odd coloured fledglings, both male and female. It is always a very charming sight, which we feel very privileged to have seen and even luckier to catch a snap.
Bird song and calls are another way of identifying birds that are difficult to get a glimpse of when many of them can be described as;- ’ little brown jobs’ and move very quickly around you. There are many apps you can download to your phone (some better than others) that will identify birdsong accurately. It is wise to try a few out for accuracy. The first one I tried always told me there was a barn owl when a nearby gate was opened and shut! Maybe not the most accurate.
There is a difference between bird songs and bird calls this is based on the complexity, length and context in which it is used.
Songs tend to be longer, more complex and have a varied series of notes delivered in phrases. They usually sound melodious to the human ear. Different species have different songs. Calls tend to be short and simple and given as one or two similar notes.
As high frequency sounds travel better over open spaces so farmland and open habitat birds like larks and pipits tend to have higher pitched sounds. As these sounds can be more distorted by trees and other vegetation, woodland birds, like thrushes tits and warblers, tend to have lower pitched songs.
Despite being very small, some birds have very loud songs and calls. Birds physically sing in a similar way to the way humans talk, by exhaling air from the lungs. Instead of vocal chords they have a more sophisticated organ called a syrinx which is able to produce different types of sounds simultaneously. It even has air sacs around it which help to amplify the sounds. The position structure and complexity of the syrinx varies from bird to bird. Only a very few species of birds do not have a syrinx at all eg. the new world vulture.
Birds sing to advertise their presence to rivals, to establish and maintain territory and to attract a potential mate. Many species continue singing throughout the breeding season to maintain the pair bond and territory. Some will reduce the frequency while spending more time feeding young. Some species like the lesser whitethroat stop singing once they have paired with a mate which will make them harder to detect after the breeding season. They have been recorded in the orchard in early spring with a birdsong app. Few species sing outside the breeding season although one exception is the Robin. Both males and females sing to establish an individual territory during Winter, there are at least two robins in the orchard. During our recent archaeological digs, we were delighted to have the company of a robin who kept an eye on the worms we were unearthing. It enjoyed eating quite a few quite large ones, to the point where we wondered if it would still be able to take off! Whenever we are working in the orchard there is always at least one robin keeping an eye on us or singing away in a nearby bush, a cheerful encouragement to keep working.
In Britain from late April and into June we can hear ‘The Dawn Chorus’. This lasts from about half an hour before sunrise to about half an hour after sunrise. There tends to be a sequence of birds singing starting with robins and thrushes and tits, warblers and wren joining later. The wren is a tiny bird with a very loud song, hard to spot but easy to hear.
The air is still at dawn and there are fewer background noises so the song travels a lot further. This is a good time for them to attract a mate or to defend a territory.
Not all birds will sing, calling is more frequent.
True songbirds of the passeriform order tend to have the most complex songs. The best examples are larks, thrushes, warblers and buntings. Some birds, like crows have relatively simple songs. Passeriformes are able to learn their songs from adult males and practice and perfect them as they grow. The calls of other birds occur from birth, they are instinctive and need no practice.
Bird calls are mostly a means of communication. Parent birds have contact calls with newly fledged young to help them stay together until they are ready to be self sufficient. Flocking birds tend to call regularly, in same and mixed species, especially in woodland where they are not able to see each other to ensure that they all stay together.
Alarm calls tend to be louder and more strident than contact calls and usually given as a warning of approaching danger, for instance an approaching cat, a bird of prey or a human. The call alerts others to the danger and often the other birds become quiet and motionless too until the danger should have passed. An example of this is is the constant noise around nesting seabirds.
There are other bird sounds, some make mechanical sounds for similar reasons. Woodpeckers drum on trees to attract mates and to deter rivals, they can also call to attract mates and to raise alarms. Both woodpigeons and nightjar make clapping sounds with their which occurs throughout mating displays. Woodpigeons doing this can be very noisy and seem very aggressive.
Birdsong can be used for identification of species, taxonomy, surveys of bird types and numbers. It occurs in arts and culture, in music, poetry and other writing. It can be used for mental health to produce calm and wellbeing and just to cheer you up!
How many of these have cheered you up, calmed you down or given you pleasure?
Please feel free to add to these lists.
Carol Stewart September 2024
Music inspired by Birdsong
Lark Rising by Ralph Vaughn Williams
The Birdy Song by the Tweets which peaked at number 2 in1981
The cuckoo and the nightingale by Handel
Nightingale sang in Berkley Square. Sung by Frank Sinatra during WW2 and many others since
Poems
To a skylark Percy Shelley
Ode to a nightingale – John Keats
Hope is the thing with feathers - Emily Dickinson
‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul-
And sings the tune without the words-
And never stops- at all……..
Art work
Magpie by Claude Monet
Fabric designs
The Strawberry Thief by William Morris
Back to Stories
It is most likely that there were birds living in and around the houses until at least 1911 when we know the houses were still occupied. The occupants of the cottages may have had domestic fowl like chickens, ducks and possibly geese. These will have been an important source of food especially if they were laying and possibly of income if they could sell the eggs. They would rarely have eaten the birds if they were laying and it was usually cockerels that ended their life on the table.
From living memory we know that Derek Howlett kept chickens in there in the 1950’s and 1960’s when he lived in one of the houses just over the railway line. His stepdaughter Val remembers that he dropped his lantern into the well one night when he was locking them up. It may still be down there, perhaps if the well is ever excavated it may be found. An artifact that is a piece of remembered and documented history!
Since the clearance of the houses the land became very overgrown only entered by children looking for adventure or, in Autumn, foragers collecting apples and plums. By the 70s, 80s and 90s they mostly collected them outside the perimeter from the field surrounding the area. It was very difficult to get into the centre of the area by then through the dense undergrowth of brambles, ivy, nettles, elder and other tough plants. At that time there must have been a wide range of farmland and woodland birds nesting, roosting and feeding in there. There would have been plenty of clues to which species were there like nests, eggshells, droppings and feathers, even skeletons however these would have been difficult to get to. It was more likely that the bird life was quantified, by anyone interested, through sightings and identified bird song or calls.
In past years we have observed and photographed a green woodpecker nesting in a hole in one of the old apple trees. The following year great tits had adopted the same hole as a nesting site and were observed flying in and out, feeding young. There has been evidence of greater spotted woodpeckers coming and going into the denser part of the wild area during nesting time. This is still the case although the green woodpeckers currently seem to prefer a nearby copse with taller trees.
Bird song and calls are another way of identifying birds that are difficult to get a glimpse of when many of them can be described as;- ’ little brown jobs’ and move very quickly around you. There are many apps you can download to your phone (some better than others) that will identify birdsong accurately. It is wise to try a few out for accuracy. The first one I tried always told me there was a barn owl when a nearby gate was opened and shut! Maybe not the most accurate.
There is a difference between bird songs and bird calls this is based on the complexity, length and context in which it is used.
Songs tend to be longer, more complex and have a varied series of notes delivered in phrases. They usually sound melodious to the human ear. Different species have different songs. Calls tend to be short and simple and given as one or two similar notes.
As high frequency sounds travel better over open spaces so farmland and open habitat birds like larks and pipits tend to have higher pitched sounds. As these sounds can be more distorted by trees and other vegetation, woodland birds, like thrushes tits and warblers, tend to have lower pitched songs.
Despite being very small, some birds have very loud songs and calls. Birds physically sing in a similar way to the way humans talk, by exhaling air from the lungs. Instead of vocal chords they have a more sophisticated organ called a syrinx which is able to produce different types of sounds simultaneously. It even has air sacs around it which help to amplify the sounds. The position structure and complexity of the syrinx varies from bird to bird. Only a very few species of birds do not have a syrinx at all eg. the new world vulture.
In Britain from late April and into June we can hear ‘The Dawn Chorus’. This lasts from about half an hour before sunrise to about half an hour after sunrise. There tends to be a sequence of birds singing starting with robins and thrushes and tits, warblers and wren joining later. The wren is a tiny bird with a very loud song, hard to spot but easy to hear.
The air is still at dawn and there are fewer background noises so the song travels a lot further. This is a good time for them to attract a mate or to defend a territory.
Not all birds will sing, calling is more frequent.
True songbirds of the passeriform order tend to have the most complex songs. The best examples are larks, thrushes, warblers and buntings. Some birds, like crows have relatively simple songs. Passeriformes are able to learn their songs from adult males and practice and perfect them as they grow. The calls of other birds occur from birth, they are instinctive and need no practice.
Bird calls are mostly a means of communication. Parent birds have contact calls with newly fledged young to help them stay together until they are ready to be self sufficient. Flocking birds tend to call regularly, in same and mixed species, especially in woodland where they are not able to see each other to ensure that they all stay together.
Alarm calls tend to be louder and more strident than contact calls and usually given as a warning of approaching danger, for instance an approaching cat, a bird of prey or a human. The call alerts others to the danger and often the other birds become quiet and motionless too until the danger should have passed. An example of this is is the constant noise around nesting seabirds.
There are other bird sounds, some make mechanical sounds for similar reasons. Woodpeckers drum on trees to attract mates and to deter rivals, they can also call to attract mates and to raise alarms. Both woodpigeons and nightjar make clapping sounds with their which occurs throughout mating displays. Woodpigeons doing this can be very noisy and seem very aggressive.
Birdsong can be used for identification of species, taxonomy, surveys of bird types and numbers. It occurs in arts and culture, in music, poetry and other writing. It can be used for mental health to produce calm and wellbeing and just to cheer you up!
How many of these have cheered you up, calmed you down or given you pleasure?
Please feel free to add to these lists.
Carol Stewart September 2024
Music inspired by Birdsong
Lark Rising by Ralph Vaughn Williams
The Birdy Song by the Tweets which peaked at number 2 in1981
The cuckoo and the nightingale by Handel
Nightingale sang in Berkley Square. Sung by Frank Sinatra during WW2 and many others since
Poems
To a skylark Percy Shelley
Ode to a nightingale – John Keats
Hope is the thing with feathers - Emily Dickinson
‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers-
That perches in the soul-
And sings the tune without the words-
And never stops- at all……..
Art work
Magpie by Claude Monet
Fabric designs
The Strawberry Thief by William Morris
Back to Stories
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