This week’s Six on Saturday is a bit different.

I’ve made a game about British bird song, with six rounds to play.

https://dawn-chorus-quest.lovable.app

The disappearing dawn chorus

Lately, and particularly since International Dawn Chorus day, I’ve been thinking about the “shifting baseline.” I hate the idea that we will forget how much the natural world has changed.

I think I can remember how the dawn chorus sounded in the 1980s when I was a child. I think I have an instinctive awareness that there is something important missing now. I wonder if today’s children will sense what they are missing from the dawn chorus in 50 years time.

To play around with this idea, I went to the Bath Digital Festival buildathon, and made a game called Dawn Chorus Quest. It’s a listening game that lets you hear and see visualisations of bird song, experience the abundance of the past, and explore how the future might sound. I used my own recording of the dawn chorus, along with open source data from bird enthusiasts.

The game was inspired by Douglas Adams ‘Last Chance to See,’ and Lucio Arese bird song visualisations.

It was a marvellous journey turning data into a game that I hope shares the joy of birdsong.

I’d love for you to play it, listen, and perhaps learn a bit more about British birds.

The game also shows what the future might sound like, with more or less bird song.

Play Dawn Chorus Quest here: https://dawn-chorus-quest.lovable.app/

If you do play and spot any bugs or have any comments, please drop them here or into the feedback form.

Feedback form
https://forms.gle/qC4FLQxwPBfAweW69

We’ll probably be back to flowers next week, but I think birds count as ‘things’ in the garden (just about)

To see more ‘Six on Saturday’ selections of garden highlights, please visit Garden Ruminations.

Have a great week,

Jen xx