Durham Bird Club at 50
The county avifauna, The Birds of Durham (Bowey and Newsome, 2012) records that “A public meeting in late 1974 at Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery to discuss bird watching and recording was well-attended. This was followed on 8 January 1975 by another meeting and enrolment for membership of the Durham Bird Club began shortly afterwards.”
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We shall be organising various projects and events during the year to commemorate this special anniversary. These include a "Bird of the Week" feature, appearing below.
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Bird of the Week - Week 15
​Skylark – Song in the Sky
​​(Photo by Mark Harper)​​​
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The Skylark is a bird you often hear before you see. Its song - a constant, tumbling cascade of notes - is poured out from high above open fields and moorland, where the bird hovers, almost motionless, in the sky. It's one of the most uplifting sounds of early spring, and when you hear it, you know the season is properly underway.
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Though plain to look at - brown, streaky, and often blending perfectly into the field - the Skylark more than makes up for it in voice. Males climb higher and higher in their display flights, sometimes singing for minutes on end, their song carrying across farmland, meadows, rough grassland and moor.
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In County Durham, Skylarks can be found across the uplands and lowland farmland, though like so many farmland birds, their numbers have declined due to changes in agricultural practice. Happily, they’re still a familiar part of the spring and summer soundscape in many areas of the county.
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Have seen or heard a Skylark singing this year? Let us know where - and whether it made you stop and look up.
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E-mail: admin@durhambirdclub.org.uk
Social media tags: #DBC #DBCat50 #DurhamBirdClub #BirdOfTheWeek
#Durham #Birding #SpringMigration #BirdwatchingUK #DurhamWildlife
#CountyDurhamBirds #Birdsong #SpringBirds
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