A CHOIR OF NIGHTINGALES

With some much appreciated help from Eddie Denson and a much less appreciated dawn o'clock start, the Nightingales got counted on the west side of the railway track at New Hythe in TQ76A this morning. At least on this occasion they weren't 'singing in the rain' and I did manage to get a passable picture of this one at the Brook House entrance to the country park.
The good news is that there were no less than sixteen singers counted, a veritable choir of Nightingales! Add this to the seven counted on the east side of the track and we have a sub total of twenty three. I say sub total because hopefully there will have been some found across the river by a different surveyor, whose results I haven't seen yet. Bear in mind this is just one 2km square tetrad, if only this was typical across the country. Unfortunately it won't be, or anything near it I guess.
While on the subject of Nightingales, on friday night at about 22.20 I was in the study and thought I heard birdsong coming from the back garden. I walked out on the patio and to my surprise it was a Nightingale, singing in the dark, just beyond my garden fence. This was the first one I have heard from the house in 31 years, ironically it was also the day I completed my first ever Nightingale survey. It was still singing intermittently this afternoon, I will have a listen tonight now that the lashing rain and howling wind has stopped......until tomorrow!