Shriek of the Week: Treecreeper
Wood whisperer, bird/mouse
It’s a sweet moment when you find yourself next to a tree as a piece of the bark appears to detach itself and shift expertly upwards.
Some 40% bird, 60% mouse, treecreepers like to begin their ascent close to the base of their chosen trunk. From there they move in a corkscrew pattern around and upwards, not too high, before dropping back down and across to an adjacent tree.
Their vocalisations are fine and whispery. The high-pitched ‘seeee seeee seeee’ contact call is often given as they creep their way through woodland. This sounds similar to a number of other bird calls, and is a tricky one to be confident about.
The song is more distinctive, made up of a descending, accelerating series of notes with a little flourish at the end.
To my ear, it’s a cross between willow warbler and chaffinch. It’s rather silvery, almost apologetic.
This song can often be heard in woodland and parkland during the spring and early summer, but is easily lost among stronger sounds.
Another way to find treecreepers is by paying close attention to roving flocks of tits in the autumn and winter months.
Treecreepers don’t much like each other for company, but seem happy to team up with tits, goldcrests and chiffchaffs, with whom they work their way along a string of trees in a loose, motley crew.
In these conditions, without too many leaves on the trees, it can be easier to see the warm brown streaking of their backs, their white underparts and their delicate, down-curved bill, which is so adept at teasing out insects from the bark that they climb.
Sometimes descending the same tree: Nuthatch
Release of the week
The arrival of the new Depeche Mode album had been on my mind, but the (People are) People’s Plan for Nature is the release that found even more of my attention this week.
It’s a phenomenal effort, and the way it was created is at least as interesting as what it’s asking for. Could we build trust in ideas and each other, if more of them were made this way?
If you enjoy Shriek of the Week, please pass it on. Requests, feedback, comments? Get in touch, it’s good to hear from you.
~ Charlie
Learn more birdsong this spring:
Take the ten-week Birdsong Essentials course - final run starting early April.
Join a half-day Sussex birdsong walkshop in April
See all the Shrieks so far with the free archive.
Media credits:
The snippet on Soundcloud is by Paul Holt in Lancashire, and is reproduced, with permission, from the recording that can be found on xeno-canto.
Treecreeper image by TheOtherKev on Pixabay
Nuthatch image by Ray Jennings on Pixabay