Earth Notes: Wren Loud and Bold Ambient (2021-06)

Updated 2024-04-04 11:36 GMT.
By Damon Hart-Davis.
Ambient soundscape from 16WW back garden birdlife; small bird makes big noise! #wren #soundscape #fieldRecording
solar panels on garden wall
20210615 wren perched on vertical solar panel in garden
A couple of minutes of very loud constant contact/alarm calling from a bold wren that kept coming within a few feet of me, bellowing, as I sat in the garden.

It shouted while eating bugs off my apple-tree.

It shouted while standing on my garden solar panels.

It shouted while clinging vertically to my house wall!

This was early evening, and I think there were two of them at times.

It was suggested to me (by AF) that this was a proud recent new parent.

There's plenty of competition with background urban noises, and other birds! (Pigeons, jackdaws, crows, parakeets, at least...)

123s "20210625T1900Z wren loud contact calls in 16WW back garden" (captions) Uploaded . Downloads:
  1. • small lo-fi very low-bandwidth audio/opus mono clip 211kB (14kbps) +
  2. • lo-fi low-bandwidth mono clip 726kB (48kbps) ++
  3. • stereo clip 2820kB (187kbps) +++
  4. • hi-fi lossless audio/flac stereo clip 12368kB (823kbps) +++++
Transcript:
[loud wren contact calls in June against suburban background noise in London UK]

Show Notes

All a bit rough and ready and neither the best of recording nor editing.

This was all happening a little after 7pm BST, ie between 18:00Z and 19:00Z.

Bonus video

40s "wren loud [VIDEO]" (poster) Uploaded . Downloads:
  1. • audio-only lo-fi mono low-bandwidth audio/opus clip 75kB +
  2. • low-bandwidth MP4 video clip 1786kB ++
  3. • MP4 video clip 5269kB +++ (may not be available in data-saver/lite mode)
  4. • hi-fi/original MP4 video clip 23432kB +++++
Transcript:
[wren making loud contact calls standing on top edge of solar panel and while feeding in apple tree]

Video on Twitter and on YouTube.

~351 words.