Wendy Tobitt of Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust hears our feathered friends

Gardens, parks, hedgerows and woodlands are crammed full of birdsong all day, and you don’t have to get up at 4am to hear the dawn chorus.

Around 7 o’clock robins, blackbirds and thrushes are singing loudly to herald the new day, even if it’s raining. By midday great tits and chaffinches are singing to attract their mates. At dusk the blackbirds make their characteristic clattering alarm calls as they settle down for the evening roost.

Learning how to identify which bird is singing was one way in which I discovered the natural world. Next week families from all over Oxfordshire will be making similar discoveries at a BBOWT centre near Didcot.

The Beautiful Birds events on February 18, 19 and 20, at Sutton Courtenay Environmental Education Centre are perfect for families to drop in from 10am to 4pm and discover why birds are brilliant.

There will be trails around the nature reserve, bird themed games, and the opportunity for children to make bird feeders to take home and put up in their gardens. With woodland, ponds and open spaces at the centre, you are sure to see a variety of birds including red kites, robins and great tits.

On Wednesday, February 19, Wheatley Birds of Prey will bring a barn owl, a buzzard and a kestrel, among others, for people to see how these majestic birds use their acute sense of hearing and keen eyesight to spot their prey. If you’re planning a walk this weekend at a BBOWT nature reserve such as Sydlings Copse near Barton or Warburg Nature Reserve near Nettlebed (there are no floods at either site), or just spending a few minutes in your garden or local park, and want to know which birds to listen out for, BBOWT’s bird expert Colin Williams has a few suggestions. Great tits are easy to spot and hear because they thrive in woodland, garden shrubberies and hedges around playing fields and parks.

They are just coming into their spring plumage of smart black, white and yellow markings and really stand out among bare twigs. The male bird has a broad black stripe down its chest, and the female bird has a narrow black stripe, which makes it easier to tell them apart when they are hanging upside down on bird feeders.

The male birds are busy attracting attention to themselves by singing their ‘teach-er, teach-er, teach-er’ song, which some people describe as a ‘squeaky bicycle’. In fact the great tit has many varied songs at different times of the year, but the ‘squeaky bicycle’ one is a popular spring song. Robins, another garden favourite, are becoming increasingly territorial.

During winter it is normal to see several robins hopping about in your garden, but now that spring is here they’re staking out their territories, and that usually means one bird per garden. ‘Who killed cock robin?’ Well, it was probably another robin. It’s not unusual to see two or three robins posing aggressively on a fence or a garden wall. Each bird will be challenging the others with chest puffed out, tail erect, head back and beak in the air, giving an alarm call before they have an aerial fight.

Many people are surprised to hear robins singing at night but it is quite usual for the melodious trilling song to be heard around midnight.

Another night-time bird is the tawny owl. Their call, often thought to be ‘tu-whit’ ‘tu-woo’, may be two birds, one responding to the other. The long hoot of the male call sounds like ‘tu-woo’ and the female responds with a shrill ‘keewick’, which could be heard as ‘tu-whit’.

Wherever you are, and whatever the weather this weekend, listen out for garden and woodland birds singing their way into spring.

To find out more about beautiful birds, garden wildlife and nature reserves, go to www.bbowt.org.uk