Desert Island Bird Sounds

 It is more years than I care to remember since I wrote a blog entitled Desert Island Books.  In any event, I have read a great many books since then so my chosen eight would be rather different now.  I must give the idea a reprise, but not just yet.  Instead, I have chosen eight bird sounds I would take along with me.  Now, getting this choice down to eight sounds was no easy task.  I decided on some tight criteria to help in the choosing.  In short only local birds would be included so that ruled out some memorable experiences on foreign trips, not least being perhaps the most memorable, a Thrush Nightingale of an evening in Scandinavia.  Each sound had to really mean something to me personally and if not a commonly heard sound, at least it’s not to be a rarely heard one.   I decided also to rule out seabirds as I’m hoping that my desert island will be surrounded with such birds anyway.

If you are not a Radio Four listener, and surely many of my erudite readers will be, and have not listened to Desert Island Discs, this blog title may not mean a great deal to you.  I hope you continue to read and enjoy anyway.

Blackbird

1.  My first choice is the melodic song of the Blackbird.  I have known this song since childhood when even in the East End Newcastle there was a significant dawn chorus in the 1950s, which in truth was rather annoying at the time, as I tried to get extra shut eye before getting up for school.  I am happy to say that even now I rarely go a day without seeing and hearing Blackbirds, whether it be song or alarm calls.  I have wonderful memories of listening to Blackbird song on atmospheric walks as dawn broke and light replaced semi-darkness.  Even more clearly in mind is the song I hear at home in early spring in the morning, but more especially the evening as the bright light is slowly replaced by the dimness of dusk and late evening.

Pink footed Geese

2.  I love bright winter days because of the sharpness and clarity of the light, and perhaps the most evocative sound of winter is that of calling Pink footed Geese, as skeins of them paint letters in the clear azure sky.  There is little better on a winters day than standing on frost coated hard ground, layered up to protect from the biting cold and listening to geese as they fly overhead and across wide open landscapes.  My greatest memories are local ones in Northumberland, and in Dumfries and Galloway.

Baldric the Buzzard, once resident at Muncaster Castle, Cumbria.

3.  Places of wild look and open space are my favourite and I associate the Common Buzzard with such areas.  Although quite commonly seen now this bird will never fail to excite me and the melancholic mewing of these birds is a sound I would not want to miss.

4.  I have rarely missed a visit to Slaley Forest over a good number of years since my first visit with a group of local Bird Forum members some years ago.  Whatever happened to such gatherings?  I remember one memorable evening when a female group member, who will remain anonymous, offered to remove her bra and wave it to attract the birds.  Perhaps the prospect of midge bites made her have second thoughts! The visit was made to find Nightjars, and we had success, and I rarely have I failed to find the birds since.  There is something special about the almost mechanical churring which begins as the darkness of the night sets in and silence takes over.  I have experienced wonderful evenings with special friends being attacked by insects on balmy summer evenings, and one or two cold wet ones too, listening for the churring to begin and eventually being rewarded by the sight of a Nightjar hunting.  I would always be happy to accept no sighting, as it is the sound that excites me, and the wonderful view across Northumberland and into Cumbria as the sun disappears below the horizon that I so much enjoy.

Bullfinch

5.  Another melancholic sound to my ears is that of the Bullfinch.  This song is so easy to miss and is best heard very early in the year when there is little competition from other species.  At this time of year, it signals the spring is not far away even if the conditions of winter still predominate.  A beautiful, quiet and almost mournful song.

6.  It is not easy attempting to choose the sound of a warbler but I decided that it is the simple and short song of the Willow Warbler that I would most like with me.  For many years I have listened for the Willow Warblers song on patch, a sign that spring is truly with us.  It is another sound that I also associate with walking in our wilder areas.

7.  Alone on a desert island would I think require me to have something which would give an uplift to the spirit and I can think of nothing better than the song of the Skylark.  Mentioned in poems by such great poets as Shelley, Meredith, Hughes and Clare and the subject of The Lark Ascending, music by Ralph Vaughn Williams makes it good enough for me.

8.  Thankfully we still have a few Curlews in Northumberland, although it is a bird very much at risk.  Its haunting call would remind me of my home birding area, and I would not want to be without it.

Now I could think of another eight birds sounds and then another eight quite easily, but these are my top choice.

My book choice is just as difficult, but will be the complete works of the poet John Clare which would give me a wealth of pleasure and discovery.  My special item would of course be my binoculars.

If a giant wave came along and washed away all but one of the sounds, without any question the one I would rescue would be the song of the Blackbird.