Antrim Plateau - Nocturnal Soundscape (June)

The Glenwherry project area on the Antrim Plateau overlaps with the Antrim Hills Special Protection Area and Important Bird Area. It is an extensive upland plateau which supports large numbers of breeding waders.

In Glenwherry I was supported by the local Curlew LIFE Project Officer, Katie Gibb, and research assistant Annie Birtwhistle. We were blessed with perfect weather, and treated to a night-time cacophony of snipe and curlews. As the last of the sunset’s peachy-pinkness drained below the horizon, the snipe came out in force, drumming their tail feathers above us and ‘chipping’ from the ground. A sheep coughed like a human. Before long, as if they knew we’d been waiting for them, eerie nocturnal curlew sounds entered the soundscape. After some initial contact calls, one of the adults started making an alarm call that none of us had heard before – a strange, short stabbing sound, repeated over many minutes. The final sections of this soundscape feature the loudest snipe drumming I’ve ever heard.

Species: snipe, curlew, starling.
From Disc II of Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds