A cry in the dark

One thing I like about this time of the year is that there is a bit of noise in the gardens and countryside again, the birds are starting to sing again after there moult. That may surprise a few people who think birds only sing in the spring and early summer but our residents have a full time job on their hands to keep up the tunes.

Why do birds sing? Well it’s simple really, to attract the ladies of course or is it? It is far more complex than just that. The typical songs of many birds are for just that reason, attracting the ladies but why would a dipper or a blackbird be singing to himself in October or a robin or wren be belting out their songs also. Territories! That’s what it’s all about and letting everyone else know you’re still here and you will be available until the music stops or someone better comes along.

Once the hurly burly of the breeding season is over there is time to relax and get a new set of feathers, rebuild your strength and then start it all over again. You won’t hear the same dawn and dusk chorus as you did in early May, but song nevertheless returns to the air.

However, it is not just birds that become more vocal again as the nights draw in. Mammals start to become more vocal for various reasons. Being late one evening walking the dogs last November I remember being startled by the shrieks in the early evening, banshee like screams from the depths of the wood. I met another walker who was transfixed and a little perturbed as to the culprit and when I said it was a badger she was most annoyed declaring badgers don’t scream they are nice creatures and couldn’t possibly make a noise like that.

I moved on with wry smile thinking back to a screaming badger I witnessed outside of my bedroom window many years back and thought to myself, aye badgers don’t scream. Nobody really knows why they have this particular habit but its one that more often than not in my experience occurs more in winter.

Soon the still winter air will be shattered by the unearthly shrieks of another denizen of the night, the fox will be in search of his mate. As the mating season approaches they become more and more vocal in their search for a mate to secure the next generation. Of course the badger will have already mated earlier in the year, using delayed implantation to secure and early New Year birth for their young. Foxes will have to contest the harshness of winter, starvation and several fights with rivals before they secure their next generation.

A harsh time for the fox but one I look forward to as their calls stirs something primeval and it lets us know there are still wild creatures out there in our crowded little country.