Changes afoot

Walks this spring, and news from me.

The dog and I took a walk in the woods early on Saturday. The air was cold but the sun was strong, once it had cleared the treeline, and as we walked the birdsong built, little by little.

Before an hour was up we had the makings of a thin chorus - robin, dunnock, coal tit, song thrush, all as expected, but stock dove, mistle thrush and treecreeper too.

Four seasons are just not up to the task of telling the true story of the year.

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Since 2021 I have started January with a flurry of Birdsong Academy activity - organising walks for the spring, writing new accounts for Shriek of the Week, and getting ready for the 10-week online course. However, this year my focus has been caught elsewhere, by a new full-time role with Sussex Wildlife Trust. I’m working on digital communications, with a wonderful team of humans, in support of the Trust’s ambitious plans to restore nature at scale across the county I love. It’s a bit of a dream.

As with any new job, I’m still working out how I fit myself to this new shape, and with this one I’m working out where the birdsong fits too. Like Birdsong Academy, Sussex Wildlife Trust offers public walks, and emails, and courses, and I’ll likely be involved with all those on behalf of the Trust, to some degree.

While this settles, I’m being cautious about what I offer through Birdsong Academy, but there will certainly be early-morning events at Stanmer Park (Brighton) on Saturday 8 March, and on Wimbledon Common (London) on Saturday 22 March.

I expect to put out more events later in the spring - if you would like to be notified, make sure you are signed up to this newsletter. 👇

There is no full online course this year, but weekly emails via Shriek of the Week have turned full circle, and we are back with the winter singers - so far, Robin, Wren, Song Thrush and Blackbird.

The posts are reassuringly, or perhaps unforgivably, similar to those of previous years, though there is always something new, usually a recommendation for something to read or watch; for instance, this precious short film by Thomas Winward.

All subscribers receive the audio and text versions of Shriek of the Week, but those who support with a paid subscription also receive an invitation to the Early Bird Club, a Zoom call on the first Saturday of every month, in which we tour live-streams across the UK, Europe and further afield in search of birds.

In our first call of 2025, we managed 32 different species. I wonder how many we can find together by the end of the year? (Here’s the list so far).

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Outside of public events, Birdsong Academy is also running breeding bird surveys for Forestry England and two local nature restoration projects, guiding engagement events for Pevensey Farmer Cluster and Greening Chiddingly, and providing birdsong-related input to Content Rising at Wakehurst Place in June. I plan to say more about how these projects are going later in the year.

A final flag to wave, for those in East Sussex: Hailsham Green Drinks is an informal get-together for people with an interest in climate, nature, food and community-related action.

If you would like to know about future Hailsham Green Drinks, there’s a mailing list here (and to see the kind of related action that’s taking place locally, browse our noticeboard).

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Thanks for reading, and however the year has started where you are, I wish you what Wendell Berry called the peace of wild things.

~ Charlie

The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.