Birdsong's back - events for Spring 2024
Including a special offer for Birdsong Academy subscribers
Skylark. Blackbird. Treecreeper. Thrush. By mid-February, many songbirds are preparing for spring, and so are we.
This year Birdsong Academy is offering a range of birdsong training, inspiration and experiences to suit every budget and location.
If you can get to Sussex, UK… why not join me for a gökotta dawn gathering (with Swedish fika) at The Secret Campsite (April & May) or a later morning’s walking workshop at Stanmer Park (March & April).
There’s a special offer for the gökotta experience, for subscribers to this newsletter - see below.
If you would like to supercharge your birdsong knowhow in a friendly group, the 10-week Birdsong Essentials course begins soon. This provides a deep dive into British bird calls, with a drumbeat of lessons, live practice calls and ID support through the spring. (And if the standard fee is a barrier there are three low-cost places available.)
If you would like free weekly listens, Shriek of the Week is now offering narrated posts to all subscribers, so you can listen along wherever you are. The paid tier of £25/year or £3.50/month including an invitation to our monthly tour of live streams around the world, and full access to the archive too.
If you would like to take part in a ‘crowdsourced’ dawn chorus, get outside with your phone and join a free Up With The Birds call, from wherever you are, on dates in March, April or May.
If you would like to hear from experts in their field, there will be a series of free evening presentations, beginning with Tom Cadwallender on birds in Northumberland on 14 March.
More details and links for all the above below. 👇
Birdsong Essentials, the 10-week course
Back for its 4th year, the course begins again on 24th February.
In the ten weeks leading up to the peak of the dawn chorus, you will nurture your bird-listening habit, learn how you can tell apart more than 25 species of resident and summer-visiting birds, and deepen your appreciation of the season’s changes.
The course features audio lessons, group calls & chat, expert support throughout and access to further exclusive identification resources after the course ends. It’s suitable for those who know a bit or not very much at all about UK birds and birdsong.
Find out more on the Birdsong Academy website.
*NEW*
Gökotta dawn chorus experiences
In a new event for 2024, experience the dawn chorus the Swedish way, in the Sussex countryside.
Gökotta is a Swedish word for the act of rising early and going outside into nature and birdsong. We hope to greet the day with nightingales, warblers, woodpeckers and owls, at the enchanting Secret Campsite.
Standard tickets for this experience are £55, but for a limited time those subscribing here can purchase a ticket for £40. Select standard ticket and use the discount code GOKOTTA15.
Stanmer Park walkshops
Walkshops are again booking for March and April at Stanmer Park, Brighton.
In these half-day events you can immerse yourself in live birdsong as part of a convivial group, and ‘tune your ear’ early in the spring. The price includes pre-event lessons, coffee and cake at The One Garden and support for a local conservation project.
Shriek of the Week emails
Emails from Shriek of the Week are now weekly again for the new year, and feature a different bird sound every Friday, January to June. These offer an introduction to common songs and calls, timed with the stages of the spring that you’re likely hear them.
The standard emails are free, and now include a narrated version of each post.
Catch up with Dunnock, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Robin, Great Tit, Song Thrush, and Blackbird.
To get access to the full archive, and invitations to the monthly ‘Early Bird Club’ call touring live streams around the world, sign up for the enhanced subscription. You can also give it as a gift to a bird-lover in your life.
Up With The Birds - Dawn choruses on Zoom
Back for its 5th year, our free monthly Up With The Birds Zoom calls follow the dawn chorus through spring. Join me and others across the UK and beyond as we share live sounds from wherever we are, however we can.
Free, and open to all, from March to May - sign up for access to the full details and the link to join.
Talk: The Birds of Alnmouth with Tom Cadwallender
There’s something particularly wonderful about hearing from someone who knows their part of the world and its wildlife so very well.
Tom Cadwallender is a highly knowledgeable and passionate birder from the North-East of England, who brings to life the bird stories of his local patch of Alnmouth, a place he has watched closely for 35 years.
This event is free to Birdsong Academy mailing list subscribers. Sign up on for your ticket here.
If you know someone who might be interested in these kinds of offerings, please feel free to pass this along. And if you have any questions let me know in the comments here or by emailing charlie@birdsong.academy.
I hope to see you among the birdsong this spring.
~ Charlie
Can’t wait for spring? We’ve updated the list of our favourite cameras and live streaming audio from around the world.