I hate being woken up early. It’s, an important function being interrupted, like, drinking water is important and necessary, to me being woken up is like trying to drink water, and the water keeps dissappearing. So, being woken up, is not nice!
But, I’ve learned that I don’t feel that way if birds wake me up.
This is the sound (this one is from the evening because I didn’t record during the mornings) that woke me up for 3 weeks. It’s glorious!
Normally, if I’m woken up early, it’s by something utterly, utterly annoying. But this was being woken up by, a reminder that there are many different animals, and many different amazing minds, on Planet Earth. Isn’t that nice!
The jackdaws would be on the move during sunrise, and then again at sunset. During sunset they would fly north, and at sunrise (I’m guessing) they would fly south. I often went out during sunset to look at the jackdaws and listen to their wonderful sounds, and it was magnficent. Hundreds of jackdaws, all moving north together. If you looked up you would see hundreds and hundreds of wings. Every now and then, some of them would take a break by landing on the trees. Such wonder!
This was all during a wonderful three weeks I spent near Courtmacsherry in West Cork, starting in December 2024 and finishing in January 2025. I spent these three amazing weeks surrounded by birds, and hearing their song. And on January 26th, I took a walk to Narrie’s Cross, a place with a lovely view of the coast.
And, from the start of the walk to the end, I could hear bird song, pretty much the whole time!
And I heard so many song thrushes that day, which is one of my favourite sounds in the world. Here’s one I recorded:
Audio recording birds comes with a lot of challenges. The main challenge is that, no matter how remote an area you are in, there is pretty much ALWAYS background noise. If it’s not the wind, it’s a lawnmower, or farm machinery, or a car. I just want to hear my birds!
I reached Narrie’s Cross, and took in the scenery.
A bit foggy today, but still a nice view.
And at Narrie’s Cross, I got a recording of a rook. It was my first time listening to a rook, and their call is a lot more interesting and varied than I thought. Listen to this, and apologies for the horrific wind noise!:
I always thought a rook’s sound was just a simple “GWAAAWK!!” but if you listen to this, it’s more like “GWAAAAAAWK YAYAYAYAYAYAYA WOOOOOOOO!!!!!” Rooks aren’t normally associated with pretty sounds, but I actually think the more high pitched sounds they make are very sweet sounding. And who says bird songs have to be sweet all the time anyway? If I want a sound with a bit more metal to it I’ll listen to some gralag geese!
A lot of the Irish birds are in danger, as I wrote about here:
But it gave me a bit of hope that I was able to experience going on a walk where I hear bird song from start to finish, and being able to go on a walk where I hear bird song for the entire duration of the walk. I was so immersed in the sounds of birds for those three weeks that I felt a euphoria I can barely describe. Going down to Courtmacsherry or the Estuary and hearing the curlews was amazing. Three whole weeks of being able to hear this on a regular basis:
Hearing the sound of the curlews has made me screech with joy (hope that didn’t scare anyone!) has made me felt a great inner calm, and is so beautiful it has brought me close to tears. And when I’m close to tears, I don’t know how much of it is joy at their sound, or sadness at the thought that they might be extinct in my lifetime.
Near where I was staying is a beach called Broad Strand. In the Summer I go swimming there, in the Winter, being a coward, I just go walking there, and this Winter I was frequently greeted by the wonderful sound of choughs:
Angry space laser, I love it! So many great singers! It’s about time humans realize they don’t have a monopoly on this singing business!
And here’s a sound that’s a lot more musical than I thought it would be. The sound of a raven. This sounds to me for all the world like a Scandinavian instrument called an overtone flute:
I was thinking about this sound for a long time after I heard it. The raven is singing a scale, the root note, the fifth and seventh, that’s why it’s got that overtone flute sound. I was amazed at how similar it sounded to human music. Of course, there could be a simpler explanation, the human brain has a tendency to form patterns where there are none. It could be that in truth this sounds nothing like human music and I’m just perceiving it that way. But either way, what a beautiful sound to hear! In a world where there is constant background noise that would make me want to live on the moon where’s there’s no noise except that would be self defeating because I wouldn’t be able to hear any birds, it was so lovely to catch this pleasant performance of a raven.
Three weeks were spent, from sunrise to sunset, immersed in the wonderful sound of birds. I can’t explain how my mind and senses were enriched by this experience, so you’ll just have to get out and experience it for yourself!
Ponderings Of An Autist 