Our annual nightingale walk last Friday 9 May attracted 24 people, including some from Lewes, but no nightingales. Well, there were a few singing earlier in the evening, and at the end a very distant bird was heard over in Streat, but our birds did not perform. Now, we were a bit later in the year than we like (usually like to do it before the end of April), but it shouldn’t have been too late in the year (indeed odd birds can occasionally be heard until early June); neither should it have been too late in the evening, although we were a bit later than usual for reasons I won’t dwell on. The weather was blustery and threatening rain, but not really enough to stop them. The moon was bright, but not that bright. The first ones had arrived very early this year and they might mostly have pretty well settled down with a mate by the 9 May, but I think they were just being awkward.
There had been a vixen barking out there and a tawny owl calling a little earlier in the evening.
Curiously, two nights later (still a very blustery night) I had a call from some people at the north end of the parish who had been on the walk and wondered if they had a nightingale in their garden. She took the phone into the garden and sure enough it sounded like a nightingale over the phone but I’ll have to get up there to check it. Generally in recent years there has been very few nightingales singing up that end of the parish.
Tony Hutson
There had been a vixen barking out there and a tawny owl calling a little earlier in the evening.
Curiously, two nights later (still a very blustery night) I had a call from some people at the north end of the parish who had been on the walk and wondered if they had a nightingale in their garden. She took the phone into the garden and sure enough it sounded like a nightingale over the phone but I’ll have to get up there to check it. Generally in recent years there has been very few nightingales singing up that end of the parish.
Tony Hutson