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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Travel
Caroline Butterwick

How a dawn chorus break in Gloucestershire opened my ears to the birds

A dawn chorus workshop helped our writer identify bird songs.
A dawn chorus workshop helped our writer identify bird songs. Photograph: John Porter/Alamy

Silhouettes dart across a lake and the pale morning sky. Avocets screech high-pitched cries, defending their eggs from a squawking crow that circles above, while a barnacle goose with a barking call flies overhead.

There are 12 of us watching and listening on a dawn chorus workshop at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) Slimbridge centre in Gloucestershire. Being partially sighted, birding has felt out of reach for me. But this morning is about identifying birdsong, and I’m curious as to whether this will help me feel a deeper connection with nature.

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