Birdsong.

                                                                                       Birdsong.

While out in some woods checking on deer damage for an estate in Oxfordshire, it became very noticeable at the lack of any birdsong. There were birds still fluttering from one tree to another and apart form the squawk of an odd Magpie and the cooing of a Wood pigeon there were no other sounds to be heard. It is now the eighth month of the year and the days are becoming shorter and the nights are starting to close in, which is why most birdsong has ceased. So it will be another six months or more before we hear the song of the Blackbird again. The only bird you are likely to hear that continues its song through August is the Yellowhammer, easily recognised from its simple song that sounds like it is saying  "a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese" which is one of the most characteristic sounds to be heard on hot summer days.

A Yellowhammer.

The bird is easily recognised by its bright yellow plumage on its head and underparts, on the male, with a heavily streaked back, while the female is much duller. The bird is about the size of a sparrow and during the winter months of the year they will often fly with them in small flocks. The yellowhammer is a passerine meaning sparrow like in the Bunting family and it is common throughout the UK but numbers have declined during the last thirty or forty years due to the use of pesticides and the removal of many of our hedgerows. It prefers to live in lowland arable and mixed farmland because of the greater availability of seed. It feeds its young on insects but once they have flown the nest they quickly adapt to the eating of seeds.

I look forward to the arrival of next spring because the woods and fields, without any birdsong, although pleasurable to be in, are not quite the same.