Tuning in to bird calls on a North York Moors walk

“You don’t need binoculars,” Richard Baines says at the outset, which surprises me on a walk ostensibly about birds. The sun has yet to rise and the muddy ground crunches with ice, yet he points out that ornithological spring is already under way — “Birds are starting to sing,” he says; “Some, like the crossbill, might already have laid eggs.” We had driven up from Pickering to the North York Moors, an area he has explored for more than 40 years and written about in his memoir The Rarity Garden.

As a 14-year-old he learned bird songs and calls; “When I started to prioritise sound above sight, the trees came alive and I have never had a bad woodland walk since.” We climb to an open ridge with no bird sounds and drop into a sheltered glade where a large bird flits out of the trees and is gone.

“Great start!” Richard says: “Male goshawk.” Stopping by a small stand of alder and hazel, I load Merlin on my phone. The app pings three names — song thrush, chaffinch, blackbird — and then a mewling cry from the top of the alder.

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