Listen to nature's symphony at Druridge Bay this May

The wren. The smallest bird, with the biggest pair of lungs.

Northumberland Wildlife Trust is encouraging everybody to celebrate International Dawn Chorus Day by setting their alarm clocks early and heading to its Druridge Bay reserves to hear the birdsong for themselves.

What started as a small urban event in Birmingham in the 1980s, International Dawn Chorus Day is a celebrated on Sunday, May 7 by millions of people all across the world.

At this time year, all the wildlife charity’s Druridge Bay reserves are a symphony of sounds with birds looking for mates and staking a claim to territory.

From East Chevington, to Cresswell Pond via Druridge Pools, nature lovers will hear wood pigeons, great tits, collared doves, reed warblers, sedge warblers, robins, blackbirds and wrens - the smallest bird with the biggest pair of lungs.

There are also resident woodpeckers that can be heard ‘drumming’ on the trees and, if people are lucky, they may even be able to hear a cuckoo or cettis warbler.

Hauxley nature reserve welcomes over 45 species of birds most months and, although the reserve doesn’t open until 10am and therefore not a site to hear the dawn chorus on, it is well worth a visit at any time of the year.

As part of a commitment to ensure its reserves are accessible to as many people as possible, a short recording made during year’s International Dawn Chorus Day is available by logging on at www.nwt.org.uk/events/2023-05-07-dawn-chorus-day