Durham Wildlife Trust is asking people to record birdsong and submit it electronically to be added to a ‘digital dawn chorus’.
The nature conservation charity ordinarily delivers weekly wildlife-themed events, however the current restrictions on movements has resulted in the cancellation of all those planned until late May.
The charity has moved many of its resources online to keep people in touch with wildlife during these unusual times, including running a number of online training events and launching a new initiative called Wild@Home, designed to offer people of all ages activities to complete at or near home with a different theme each week.
With many commenting on social media that they are noticing more about the wildlife close to their homes, the Trust felt it was the ideal opportunity to ask people to participate in a digital project.
Head of Conservation Mark Dinning said: “One of our favourite annual activities is the Dawn Chorus event which was due to take place at Low Barns nature reserve on 3 May. We had planned to take a small group out into the site in the early morning to listen to the bird songs and note down the different species.
“Instead, we are now planning to bring that event into everyone’s living rooms with a digital recording of birds from across the North East. But we need the help of our followers and supporters to do that.
“We are asking for people to record short video clips of single birds singing from their windows, in their gardens or on their daily walks. Clips can be submitted electronically – there are details of how to do so on our website – then in late May we will share with everyone our digital dawn chorus performance featuring the many and varied bird species from across the region.”
Clips should be submitted no later than 8th May. To find out more visit: www.durhamwt.com/dawnchorus
