大象传媒

It was pitch black, only a few hours into the first day of April and pouring with rain, when we left our dry, warm kitchens and the smell of toast. We filled a car with recording equipment and drove to the Royal Horticultural Society's Harlow Carr Gardens in Harrogate.

I've been on other jobs which required an early start and the prospect usually filled me with sullen self pity, but this was different. It was exciting to think we were up before the birds, laying in wait for them in fact, and ready to witness one of nature鈥檚 wonders.

Andrew Willocks spies a Robin.

It began with silence. The rain stopped on cue, then one lone bird decided it was time for the day to begin and gradually others joined him. Of course neither of us could have distinguished one chirrup from another, without the acute hearing and ornithological knowledge belonging to Andrew Willocks. Andrew is one of Harlow Carr's gardeners and, more importantly, a bit of a bird expert.

He says, "I find the anticipation of the first bird to call at dawn in spring an exciting and humbling experience. For once we can sit (or more probably lie) back and wait for nature to control the sounds of the day.

"At R.H.S. Garden Harlow Carr, Harrogate the Robin is usually the first to call with its gentle song that could almost send you back to sleep.

Martin packs away... and it's only 7am!

"In relation to an orchestra the song of the Robin could represent the strings section. After a while it is usually joined by the fluty call from the Blackbird echoing throughout the stream-side, valley which would not sound out of place in the woodwind section of any band or orchestra.

"From a personal point of view, the time spent listening to the sounds of the dawn chorus can be time well spent. As well as being enjoyable, it can enable us to think and reflect clearly and problem solve before the start of a busy day."

Techno-speak

Martin Grant explains how we recorded the dawn chorus: "We used a stereo pair of directional gun mics on a tall microphone stand so that we could pick up the birdsong without having to be too close and disturbing them.听

We ran a 30 metre cable from the mics to a portable recorder and tried a few locations to get the best variety of birdsong.听

Once the audio had been collected it was processed at base using some equalisation to minimise the effect of the wind-noise on the microphones.