They call August the ‘silent month’, but if you listen closely, you’ll find it’s anything but. While the dawn chorus has faded, a new and subtle soundscape takes its place. In our gardens, hear the sharp ‘tic-tac’ of a robin and the gentle cooing of collared doves. Listen for the convivial twittering of swallows as they gather on wires, preparing for their long journey south. As bird song wanes, the chorus of insects rises, with grasshoppers and crickets providing the soundtrack to late summer evenings. Even plants join in, with the gentle crackle of gorse pods on a hot day.
Return on August 14th to tune your ears to the hidden chorus of August.
Article
Sounds
Although August is known as the ‘silent month’ Gilbert White preferred to call it the ‘mute month’. The quietest period is usually between mid July and mid August. Any sounds that are heard are usually as already mentioned the supplications of young birds to their parents, but even these fall off as they become juveniles and start to prefer their own company. In gardens, even wrens are now subdued. The ‘tic tac’ call of the robin, so like two stones being knocked together, is common enough but we usually have to wait till the end of the month to hear them sing again. Although crows are unusually quiet on commons, the calls of ring-necked parakeets are still as loud as ever. By the Thames, young gulls are still following their parents, calling loudly.
More gentle sounds of the month include the soft, late summer cooing of collared doves around houses and the convivial twitterings of swallows and martins as they congregate together prior to migrating. Much harsher sounds are heard from parties of swifts moving south with their young continually screaming as they chase their parents. Arguably the most attractive sound of the month comes from mixed flocks of finches, especially if they include any goldfinches or linnets. In these recently formed flocks goldfinches can usually be recognised by their bright colours and linnets by their bouncing flight.
During the night, owls can still be heard and there is always the faint possibility of some passing migrant calling overhead in the darkness. The haunting call of a curlew is one possibility and the triple ‘chu-chu-chu’ call of the greenshank is another.
Most exciting of all would be the high rippling trill of a whimbrel. As the calls of birds diminish those of insects are now increasing. Grasshoppers and crickets are still producing a great range of different chirrups and clicks.
Those of the great green bush cricket are the loudest as they can be heard up to one hundred and eighty metres away. It makes a slightly harsher and more highly pitched call than other crickets. There are also such tiny pauses that it almost seems to be continuous. This reeling can continue from mid afternoon well into the night in parts of Thamesmead marshes and around the Crossness area.
Plants have little to offer in the soundscape of August except perhaps for the comforting sound of gorse seedpods cracking open on hot days. Where there are tracks of rushes and sedges there is some whispering if it is windy and something similar can be heard in pinewoods. In both places the sound, for some reason, becomes slightly more threatening as the light starts to fail.
