Arguably the biggest challenge of the Isle of Wight Walking Festival is not trekking 26 miles for Walk the Wight or doing the Action Challenge round the Island walk, it’s getting up in time for wildlife expert Ian Boyd’s Dawn Chorus Magic Walk which starts at the unfeasibly early 04:30.
The Isle of Wight Walking Festival’s earliest walk draws a crowd of bleary but engaged early-risers who join Ian to learn more about the songbird symphony in the Bay’s wild hinterland along the Eastern Yar. Ian’s walk starts just before sunrise, before even the very first birds start to sing, so that walkers can hear each species as they come alive.
As well as learning more about how and why birds sing at dawn and dusk and how to identify them from their song, walkers this year heard about habitat management and the importance of protecting more than just nest sites.
Ian said:
“The territory in which birds’ nests are situated becomes their main food resource; it has to support a concentration of birds, adults and young, for a short space of time until after breeding, so that patch of surrounding landscape has an important job to do. People recognise the importance of protecting nest sites but can forget about this invisible space around each nest, that it’s a vital larder for breeding birds… an essential consideration in development in particular”.
Almost 20 different species of birds made an appearance, in song at least, during this year’s walk, from many loud wrens, Cetti’s and reed warblers to chaffinches and chiffchaff and probably most exciting of all, blackcaps and the increasingly rare cuckoo.
One walker described the Dawn Chorus Walk as a great micro-adventure, revealing a new facet to the Sandown he’s lived in for years while another visitor contacted ecological and environmental specialists Arc to say thank you ‘for a wonderful dawn chorus walk’.
There are loads more walks for the Walking Festival this week. More information can be found at https://www.isleofwightwalkingfestival.co.uk/.
In addition, Arc have more nature-related events coming up for the walking festival and beyond, some of which are in Yaverland and around the Bay area. Updates are on Arc’s facebook page ‘Welcome to Arc’ or at: https://arc-consulting.co.uk/2015/04/upcoming-events/.
