The Sound Identification of Migrant Eurasian Skylark and Woodlark; The Echoes of May

Firstly, a short sound magazine dealing with the calls of Eurasian Skylark and Woodlark on spring passage here in Sweden. One is a species that is widespread over much of Europe, the other a local breeding species, which is highly sought after by birders. Both species are magnificent songsters, both are migratory and both are species recorded overhead at migration watchpoints. I this section, we will look into their typical calls, whilst on active migration.

As always, this is followed my the main course, a michelin star journey into the auditory soundscapes field recorded in late May 2024. Join me as I talk you through my experiences in May 2024, whilst out enjoying the sounds here in Sweden and listen into the soundscapes I recorded in late spring of 2024. These are the sounds of wild Sweden in late May, many of the field recordings are a few minutes long and will allow for an immersive and relaxing listening experience.

Transcript

  You are all very welcome to Wild Bird Acoustics. I'm your host, Alan Dalton, and I'll be taking you on a journey into sound. 

 Now welcome everybody to another episode of Wild Bird Acoustics. I'm your host, Alan Dalton, and as always, a wonderful show lined up for you. I have a lot of audio to share with you in this episode. 

 Now time is a strange and wonderful creature. I'm actually recording this episode on the 24th of March, 2025. I'm kind of getting ahead of myself in several ways.  It's been wonderful to actually go through this particular season. It's been a bit of a slog to be honest with you. I've got an incredible amount of work still to do on season two.

And things are catching up a little bit, but I think I'm ahead of it now and I'm just glad to say that I think season two is going to be absolutely fine.

Now my workflow at the moment, with the podcast is pretty much straightforward. All of the longer sound magazines are actually done. I just have to put together some of the shorter ones, the intro sound magazines, and I think that'll be absolutely fine. I'm actually still going through some of the audio from 2024  Vismig and Nocmig audio. And I'm actually starting to work already on season three, so I've been out right through the spring so far. , early spring period has been spent in Woodland. It's been absolutely incredible. I'm doing a lot of passive recording, a lot of active recording. I've got some wonderful audio already and I think that's gonna pay great dividends for season three. 

 Now regarding the podcast, I just want to say I've had an incredible response on Blue Sky since I've moved over there. People, there seem to be much more warming towards the podcast. There's a lot more engagement, 

I've been on X or Twitter or whatever you want to call it for the last several years. I am gonna get to a point where I have to leave it. I don't agree with Elon Musk and his politics and what's gone in America, but the uptake on Blue Sky has been absolutely incredible.

I wanna thank all of you guys out there who are involved with the podcast giving me lots of feedback there and it's been quite incredible. 

As I say, I don't wanna get into politics too much on the podcast, well, Elon Musk can go swing for it, as far as I'm concerned. And given the American administration and their attitude towards the environmental issues,    these people are not friends of the environment. Certainly not friends of birds, and I certainly do not wanna sit at that particular table. So once again, thanks everybody on Blue Sky, and if you're listening and you're Twiiter listener and you want to keep in touch with me, please have a look at Blue Sky.

I think it's a much better platform. Just a lot less bullshit there, and I think that's the way forward for people who are interested in the environment. Let's get away from the likes of Elon Musk, et cetera. 

 Now you didn't come here for politics, and I won't keep you engaged in that whatsoever. We're gonna move on to the First Cell magazine and it concerns two wonderful species, Eurasian Skylark and Woodlark. I won't ask you with into too much details. Everything is explained as always in the Sound Magazine.

So here's the first short Sound magazine here at this episode of Wild Bird Acoustics.  This is the sound identification of Eurasian Skylark and Woodlark. Enjoy. 

  Now you're all very welcome to the VIS MIG files here at Wild Bird Acoustics. On this occasion, I'm going to be delving into two species that occur correctly in vis mig.  Both species are closely related, but natural fact, they don't sound very much like each other at all. One is very, very common all over Europe, and one is considerably scarcer.

The two species that I'm referring to are Eurasian, Skylark and wood.  Now, as many of you will know, I grew up in Ireland and Skylar was very, very common there. When I was a boy just down the road at my local patch on North Bull Island, there were plenty of breeding pairs that were present in the autumn on migration.

They were present in the winter as a wintering species. I was very, very familiar with their calls and their song growing up as a boy. Of course, they have got considerably scarcer over the years to have declined quite a bit, but they still remain pretty common over Europe, and they're a staple species on visible migration. 

Now Wood Lark is a different story completely. It's a very, very local breeder all over Europe. It likes small open areas on heats with small trees, conifers, and they can be quite local. But luckily for us on visible migration, the call is very, very distinctive. Now, wood Lark is extremely rare in Ireland.

There's only a handful of records, despite the fact there's been so many rare birds found there over the years. That remains a real mega. So Wood Lark for me is quite a special bird, and at Lanor, my main listening station, I get quite a few going through early in the mornings and it's a pleasure to pick them up.

And I'm just gonna go through some of the calls. We're gonna go through Eurasian Skylark first, and all of these calls were recorded in the spring of 2024 at LANs Ort here in Sweden.  Now the calls of Eurasian Skylar are very, very distinctive, quite a dry rippling call, and it will be very, very familiar to most of you, I'm sure if you get out and listen to words on visible migration. 

Now, the first recording I have for you comes from the 7th of April, 2024. You would hear some red wing at the start giving calls, but also Eurasian Skylark, the typical call of these species on visible migration. Have a listen. 

Now at my sites here in Sweden, Eurasian Skylark usually goes over in singles. Quite often, uh, it's actually a lot scarcer than I would've expected before I started actually monitoring migration here. And I don't really get large numbers of these species. I don't get many small flocks, for example. But of course in certain areas around Europe, they're very, very common, often moving through in large numbers.

I.  I have a slightly better recording now from the 16th of March, 2024 at hort. This time at 6:26 AM in the morning. And in this recording, you'll hear some green Finch, chaffing and blue T in the background with a better recording here of an offer flying Eurasian Skylark on passage. 

Now calls of Eurasian Skylark aren't very loud in volume, and quite often you have the strain to hear distant birds. I'm going to play a recording now. In the background here, there's some blue tits and great tits in the background, just chattering away and singing. Once again, it's the typical call of the species on migration.

Mostly the dry ripple with just a little hint of a melodic whistle in it. Have a listen to this carefully. This is a Skylark passing over at medium distance. 

Now a better quality recording this time from the 26th of March, 2024. In the background here, you're gonna hear some species singing like Blackbird Song. Listen, Twittering Green Fi. Also a bit of Golfing song and also the Song of Wood Pigeon. But quite a nice recording of Eurasian Sky Lark going over on Passage in Spring. 

Another nice recording from Zot. Now, also in the late March, 2024, again, in the background, there's spring species singing Green Finch, blue tit, and also the song of Yellow Hammer. But listen to this folks. This again is Eurasian Skylark on vis mig passing over hort. 

Now another recording. The 28th March is time 2024, and in the background quite a lot of noise from a chattering singing green pinch. A very common species at the hort, and quite often in spring it can be quite difficult. So you've got a lot of species singing around you. Spring is on the up and birds are starting to display, and quite often you just have to focus on what's going over your head.

So once again, a nice recording of Eurasian Skylar on passage in spring. 

Now one final recording of Eurasian Skylark. This one on the 30th of March, 2024 at  Hort in Sweden once again, moving over on spring migration. 

Now we're gonna move on to Wood Lark, and it's a very different sounding species. The first recording I have for you comes from the beginning of April in 2024. And in the background, once again, you're gonna hear things like singing Blackbird and also great tit, for example. But it's quite difficult sometimes to make these things out.

But see if you can pick out the wood lark, the floating call of the species going overhead on spring migration. 

Now the next recording came on the 16th of March, and in the background here you will hear a great yet and also go pinch, but see if you can make out once again, wood alert going over the De Louie calls or Tolu calls. Quite a bouncing call. And quite melodic. Very, very different to Eurasian Scar. Lark.

Very, very distinctive. We see these birds well in the field. A good feature is a very, very short tail, and if you can make it out at the corner of the wing, at the bend of the wing, quite often at the base of the greater cupboards, just a small white patch. The very good feature as well, I always find in spring on visible migration.

The best feature is the call. This is Wood Lark at Hort. 

Now the next recording of Wood Lark is very, very brief, but it's also a very, very good recording. The board is very close to the recorder as it goes overhead, and basically it's just an excellent recording of Wood Lark on passage. Have a listen to this, folks. This is Wood Lark once again, 29th of March, 2024 at Lant. 

Now another recording from late March, 2024. Again, it's Wood Lark on passage. In the background here you can hear things like Blackbird Bright, T Wood Vision and Yellow Hammer. But once again, listen to the bouncing calls, the melodic calls of Wood Lark going over the recorder.  Now I realize some of these recordings aren't exactly crystal clear.

It would've been nice to be there with a parabola, and I was using an SM Mini for all of these recordings. But I do actually think it gives a good impression of what it's like to be in the field quite often in spring. There's a lot going on in the background. So like I say, just keep your eyes up, keep your ears up, and just listen for birds going over.

And if you are fortunate to get a wood lark, it always makes a morning. In most areas in Europe, wood Lark is a very, very good bird on migration, and it's certainly one that will make your morning.  So once again, this is Wood Lark going over on passage in late March. 

Now with both Eurasian Skylark and Wood Lark, the best time is early in spring, so both species are very much early spring migrants. March is an excellent month for both species. They both return very early to the breeding rounds. You get both species in autumn and again, they tend to travel at the back end of the season, so October, right at the November, sometimes you can get these species on the move.

It depends very much on where you were in Europe, but familiarity with the calls is the key. And in this last recording, you're gonna hear both species. So you've heard the calls now. See if you can make both birds out. Ian Sky Lark and Wood Lark passing over in early April, 2024 at  Hort in Sweden. 

So there you go folks. That's Eurasian Skylar and Wood Lark on Vis MIG migration. That is diurnal migration. They're both wonderful species and I really recommend folks, if you haven't already tried, getting out to watch visible migration during the day, early morning is best. You can do so quite easily.

If you're not sure where to go, maybe ask a few local borders for a few sites. They might point you in the right direction.  Now, with regard to spring, March and April are excellent, months may, it tends to drop off. Quite a bit, but then again in late August, it starts again in the autumn and September and October are excellent months even into early November in some locations. 

Now, I have to say, I absolutely love visible migration, and it's a fantastic way to spend the morning. And don't be daunted folks. If you don't recognize all of the calls in the beginning, that's quite normal. But if you stick with it, I can guarantee you it's extremely rewarding. And you will learn an awful lot.

It will make you a much better birder.  Now, I do recommend you carry a recorder, even just a cheap Zoom recorder, something like a Hey Gen One recorder. And in that case you can have a recording while you're watching the birds, and if you don't recognize a call, you can play it back to yourself later.

Identify the call and in that way you can learn the calls a lot more efficiently.  As always, folks, I hope you have enjoyed this Sell magazine and I hope it was instructive. And of course, I hope it inspires a few birders just to get out there and do a little bit of visible migration watching at whatever site you choose.

It's a fantastic way to spend a morning.  That's all for now. Wild bird acoustics, as always, folks, thanks for listening. This has been Alan Dalton at Wild Bird Acoustics.

 So there you go folks. That's , a little sound magazine on Wood Lark and Eurasian Scott Ark. Two absolutely wonderful species, two fantastic singers and Woodlark is a species I may return to in the future. 

 Wood lark in particular, is one of the most beautiful singing species in Europe, and hopefully over the next couple of years, I will let you get out there and do the species justice and share that audio with you.  

It's quite an incredible singer. One of the most beautiful singers I think in Europe.   Now, having said that, we're gonna move on to the main sound magazine of the podcast, and as always, I don't wanna shy away from playing longer recordings, and this will be a nice, relaxing sound magazine. 

Last year in 2024, I spent a huge amount of time in the field  and at the time I was just enjoying getting out into certain environments in late May, after the migrants had got back and just record as many soundscapes as possible. It was a quite wonderful time.

I got out into some incredible areas and I got some wonderful, wonderful sound recordings. I'm gonna share that with you now. Again, I don't wanna talk about it too much.  It all reveals itself in the sound magazine. This is something I want you guys to get used to, just to be able to sit back, relax, have a glass of wine, put your feet up, sit in the bath, do whatever you want to do, I am just relaxed to the wonderful sounds of nature here in Sweden, and if that brings you a sense of relaxation, as far as I'm concerned, it's job done.

This is Alan Dalton at Wild Board Acoustics, and this is sound recording. Field recording in late May in Sweden. Enjoy this.

  Welcome everybody to another cell magazine here at Wild Bird Acoustics. And in this cell magazine, we're gonna be focusing on the period of late May, and it is an absolutely incredible time here in Sweden. There's so many newly returned migrants and the soundscape, generally speaking, no matter where you go, is quite incredible.

Now, the first species I have for you is a favorite of mine. It's lesser Ro, and I found this male singing, just singing furiously. Just from a small cup of thorn bushes, and what I did was I just got the same heights. It was right up beside the cops. Now, when I did so, the bird stopped singing, but what I often do is I actually leave my recorders right up beside the bird back off, and generally speaking, the birds return and start to sing again.

That's what happened on this occasion, and what it does is it means that your microphones are very close to the bird, and you will get a wonderful recording. Now the San Ho pick up an awful lot here in the background. You can hear Distant tree people actually in song. There's a singing male yellow hammer and a lot of other stuff.

But the main focus here is a singing male, lesser white throat on territory. And this bird stayed in the earlier 40 entire summer, was back at this site quite a number of times, and the bird was still present. So a wonderful recording here for you. This is Lesser Weth. Wrote late May, 2024 here in Sweden. 

Now next up, a lovely recording of a very common species here in Sweden, and that is garden warbler. And in this recording, it's a long soundscape. And  it's quite wonderful. There's some fantastic ambience here from just buzzing insects at the start and in the background. There's so much going on. Will a warbler singing wood pigeon just cooing gently in the woodlands?

A species like chaffing giving song, blue tit distance song thrush, and there's a wonderful backdrop of a very distant pair of crane just calling. In the morning. Also, for those of you who are listening very, very carefully, you'll hear these kind of low kind of grading calls, actually common golden eye just flying over the woodlands, looking for somewhere to nest, and also cuckoo as well, which is always a lovely, lovely backdrop. 

But the main subject here is garden er, which is singing constantly throughout this recording in a little bit of woodland in coastal Sweden down near.  So it's quite wonderful recording. I'll play that for you now. It's three or four minutes long and I hope you enjoy it. 

Next up also from the woodland close to a dollar A here in Sweden. Just a few strobes of common cuckoo. Species I was really, really involved with in spring 2004, and I got some lovely recordings, but this was one of the first kind of clear TROs I got of the species. So quite a short recording here and I'll play it for you quickly.

This is common cuckoo at Dora in Sweden. 

Now I have for you a lovely recording of drumming, great spotted Woodpecker, and this is something I set out to record in 2024, and I did quite well. It's quite an easy species to record. It's very, very common here in Sweden, and the drumming display is something you would hear absolutely everywhere, but this is one of the nicer recordings I got of that. 

In the background here, you will hear chaffing just singing away. There are wing beats here from Common golden Eye as they overfly the woods Nest Prospecting also a typical sound of woodland here in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe with a warbler. And a particularly nice part of this recording is the ambience just from buzzing insects.

And the Sennheiser array just is incredibly sensitive and it just picks up all this lovely kind of insect ambience and I quite love that about this recording. So once again, this is a drumming great spotted woodpecker male bird and seeing quite well, and it's a lovely, lovely recording. Have a listen to this it. 

Now the next recording I have for you is one of my favorite song stars, and that is Rine Warbler. And in late May, you can find these boards in pretty much any kind of.  Good kind of quality deciduous mix woodland, and it's a wonderful, wonderful songster. Now, I have a bit of a, a soundscape here for you.

It's a woodland scene. The main subject is rine warr.  In the background, you'll hear things like wood, pigeon, chaffing, drumming, great spotted woodpecker and willow warbler. But the main songster here is extreme warbler, and it's more of a soundscape. Once again, it's taken with the Sennheiser array. And it's a wonderful recording.

So this is extreme warbler quite close to a lake called Dre Vegan, south of Stockholm City. I'll play that for you now.  I will listen folks. 

Next up is common white throat, and I recorded this bird at Santa Mar Reserve in late May. And in the background here, you will hear a yellow hammer and song stock dove wood, pigeon, sky lark, and great black back goal. So we'll have a listen to this. This is quite a short recording. 

Now we're gonna stay on common white throat because I have another longer recording, about three minutes long, and it's quite wonderful. It's from a place called Gern, again in Santa Maria Reserve in Sweden. And on this particular morning I just found this bird singing away and got my recorder really close.

Once again, in the background here you will hear gray light goose, Skylar over the meadows. Cuckoo in the distance. Common goal. Common Blackbird Red Shank can display Ring Plover three pivot. And also in the background a lovely male wind shot just giving a bit of song. So I'll play for you now. It's just a wonderful soundscape of this fantastic area.

This is common Wide Throat in song with a host of species in the background. Enjoy. 

Now I am gonna close out this magazine with a favorite species of mine, and that is common Rose Finch. Santa Mart is a super her place for the species. It's a song I particularly love. I've always loved it. The first time I ever heard it was in Poland and it's such a me beautiful song. They seem to like really moist, dripping, kind of wet woodland, and I've always noticed common rose finish that in places that you find them.

They're absolutely alive for insects and I don't think that's an excellent, but here you will hear common rose fi in four some.  Now this recording was far from accidental. I've been after this for a couple of years and I spent a lot of time on it on this particular morning. In the background here, you'll hear a lot of insects buzzing.

As I've already mentioned, distant cuckoo does a jack on here and war in the background. Santa Mars, a fantastic place for them. Black cap and guard, warbler and song chaffing, hoodie crow, yellow hammer, singing stocked of, and a drumming. Great spotted woodpecker. Like I say, the main star of the show here is a constantly singing Common Rose Finch, a wonderful male, was an adult male.

It sing really, really well. Just relent red plumage and has to be one of the best boards here in the summer. Absolutely love it and I'm still delight to get this longer recording of a male in full song.  So I'm gonna close out the Sound magazine, fittingly with Common Rose Finch. I hope you enjoyed this.

Folks have a listen. 

So there you go. That's a montage of late May here in Sweden. It's a fantastic time to get outboarding and sound recording. I'd recommend it highly, folks. Late May is just a great time of year. It's full of migrants and returning songbirds no matter where you're in Europe,  and it is probably the best time of year to get out there and do a bit of sound recording.

And even if you're not interested in sound recording, just get out there and have a listen. Once again, thanks for listening to us here at Wild Bird Acoustics. We'll see you next time.  

 So, there you go folks. There's some of the sounds of late May in Sweden. It was absolutely wonderful to be in these environments and just taking all of the sounds that are recorded at the time. It's an incredible environment. And I would like to say to everybody, 

it doesn't matter where you live. I live in the middle of Stockholm City.  I make an effort. I don't have a car at the moment. I've been able to get out and enjoy these sounds  and record these sounds by public transport. And if I can do it, you can do it. It doesn't matter. You don't have the BA field recorder.

Just get out there and listen to the sounds of nature. It gives me an enormous self of just relaxation and wellbeing. Listen to the birds, and listen to the sounds of nature. That's all I'm gonna say.  Once again, all the remains for me to thank you, the listeners here at Wild Bird Acoustics for tuning in to the podcast. We'll see you next time in a couple of weeks  take it easy. 



  So that brings us to the end of another episode of Wild Bird Acoustics, and I hope you've enjoyed it. As always, you can find us on YouTube by simply searching for wild bird acoustics. We do have a mailing list also, and if you want to be part of that folks, you can drop us an email at Wild Bird acoustics@gmail.com.

Now all feedback is greatly received here at the podcast. And if you'd like to write review of the podcast, you can do so at the buzzsprout header page. In addition, if you'd like to make a small financial donation to the podcast, you can do so using the buy me a Coffee button, and you'll find that also on the Buzzsprout header page. 

We will be back in a couple of weeks with more from wild bird acoustics. Until then, take it easy, folks, and as always, don't be afraid to get out into the field and relax and just listen to the wildlife out there. Maybe even do a little bit of field recording of your own.  We'll talk to you soon, folks.

Take it easy. That's all from Wild Bird Acoustics.