A single sedge warbler, a small migrant bird, with its rasping along with occasional bee, woodpecker

May 11, 2020, 07:06 PM

Pershore, England lockdown sound recorded by Jayne Lewis.

"Behind where I live are the community meadows. Everyday people are walking across the meadows and parallel ‘people tracks’ are being marked through knee high buttercups. Today I saw three cygnets hatch beneath a swan who has been sitting each day for six weeks. People have shown such engaged protective interest in the two breeding pairs of swans this year who have sat on their eggs during this whole lockdown. 

"Yesterday I saw 6 cygnets in another swan family emerge onto a lake for their first swim. Usually at this time you hear above everything the calls of the cuckoo both male and female. They cut across everything. 

"Today, with so little traffic or sounds from workplaces, I was able to watch and listen to this solitary sedge warbler. It was particularly special as this is the bird that the cuckoo parasites to raise its own chicks. 

"Last night I sang and played the clarinet, my husband played his alto saxophone and the neighbour opposite played her clarinet for the song We’ll Meet Again after the Clap for Carers on the pavement. The neighbour’s husband was in Trafalgar Square in the midst of the VE Day celebrations. He is a frail older gentleman and was determined to cross the road to tell us his story whilst we carefully retreated as he came closer and closer to tell us, he doesn’t understand the invisible enemy that is amongst us at present."

Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds