Welsh Harp Reservoir

I went over to the Welsh Harp Reservoir this morning which is about 15 minutes from where I live. Not too much to be seen at first over and above the regular set but then when I went over to the hide, I saw a greylag goose, 1 snipe in good view and some teal. A little stroll through the woods there and I saw a redwing, my first grey wagtail of the year and a fieldfare. I was quite happy to see the greylag goose as so far the ones on my list are from Regent's Park. In my book, if something is flying and could leave then it must be wild, however I don't always follow this rule. Although I am happy to count the greylag geese, I don't count the Egyptian geese even though they fly too. Also saw 2 great crested grebe's doing that mating dance. Great to see.

One of the other things I am trying to do at the moment is get my head around birdsong. I find it really hard to distinguish between them and keep finding myself listening intently to a song I've never seemingly heard before only to discover the bird is actually a great tit or something. I usually ask myself, 'is it a Robin', as these seem to be the most common bird I hear. Great tits and blue tits are next and I am starting to get to know the long-tailed tits and the dunnock. The thrush is pretty obvious simply because it is so startling in comparison with most other birds but then would I know the difference between that and a blackbird? Not sure.

I have read lots of books about birds and one of the things I cannot get to grips with is the way authors describe birdsong. This, to me, seems completely subjective. The way I describe a sound will sound different in someone else's imagination than in mine. It gets even odder if you throw in a new language. So the way that a German describes birdsong is different again depending on pronunciation in German. English, with so few rules on pronunciation, seems the worst language to try to describe birdsong in.