Chris Packham
Listen… it’s
always different, nowhere sounds the same… a complex composite of sound blended to make a perfume of noise, which, if you are not careful, is so easily
wasted. We birders do listen because we have to. Sometimes it's the
only way to find certain species, or the only way to identify them, and sometimes
we can even get to know their voices as we do those of our friends.
Nightingale (Image courtesy of the RSPB)
Some
birds are as overblown as others are over-dressed. The Nightingale spouts
a rich and eloquent cadence of notes and phrases, and it's justifiably famed for
its song. But it's very obvious, it's avian pop-rock, instantly accessible and
burdened with the baggage of familiarity. Ultimately, though, it's
all about context, it’s the where and when that matters and that's why it's the
unsung who are my tweet heroes.
Teal (Image courtesy of the RSPB)
The
excited 'preeping' of a spring of Teal as they rise from a winters flash on a
frosty morning is the glory on that icy cake. A single Avocet’s call is
little more than a cheep but when a mass swirls and kaleidoscopes in an
abstract frenzy of flashing then the flurry that flows from them is as much a
part of that event as the visual spectacle.
Great Northern Diver (Image by Graham Easton, courtesy of the RSPB)
Perhaps
it's the truly weird I like best. The song of the Divers is again renowned for
its eerie refrain, but to me it's truly other-worldly. It's alien, and its
delivery, over the flat grey spans of frigid winter water, is not only
breathtaking and haunting but also the seed to germinate visions of another
earth. Perhaps an earth where birds still prosper and the dawn choruses are still
deafening, and a walk in the woods would yield a diverse cacophony of
challenging calls.
So
listen, hear the subtle whispers, the modest words, the chatter, the quarrels,
the blasphemies of our winter birds and if you strain hard enough you will hear
your heart murmuring excitedly too.
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