Nightingales

The Nightingale is predominantly brown with a few slight grey areas, a white-grey throat and pale underparts with a grey tinge to them. The wings and tail are light brown in colouration with no distinct markings. It is a shy and secretive bird and it is best recognised by its remarkable song.

The Nightingale is a summer visitor, arriving in the UK in April and leaving in September. It breeds in south east England, mainly south of the Severn-Wash line, and nests in dense scrub and woodland from where the males sing their famously beautiful melodies throughout the day and at night. The Nightingale has long-standing literary and musical cultural connotations and depictions (see here and here).

My home county of Essex provides several reliable locations to hear and hopefully see this fast declining species, most notably EWT Fingringhoe Wick, EWT Abberton Reservoir, EWT Wrabness and Danbury Common.

This year, 2022, has provided many Nightingale memories.

Firstly, it has been my best year ever for sightings of this bird which can be exceptionally challenging to see. I normally hear and see Nightingales at EWT Abberton Reservoir but this year, I had the amazing experience of up to 8 singing males on an early morning visit and a dusk visit to Danbury Common .... see here and here .... and ....

 

Outside Essex, being woken up at 3 a.m. at the Knepp campsite in Sussex by the song of 2 male Nightingales plus seeing and hearing other birds on my walks around this incredible rewilding project will also live long in the memory .... see here.

Secondly, the Nightingale is the national bird of Ukraine and it features prominently in Ukrainian culture, including in the poem “A Cherry Orchard by the House” by Taras Shevchenko (1814 – 1861). One legend tells how Nightingales once only lived in India when one Nightingale visited Ukraine. Hearing sad songs from the people, the Nightingale sang its song to cheer them up. The people responded with happy songs and, since then, Nightingales have visited Ukraine every spring to hear Ukrainian songs. National poet Taras Shevchenko observed that "even the memory of the Nightingale's song makes man happy". Timely and appropriate given the immense problems and challenges faced by Ukraine and its people.

Thirdly, I really enjoyed reading “The Nightingale - notes on a songbird” by folk singer, conservationist, song collector, award winning promoter, broadcaster and activist Sam Lee.

As Sam Lee says .... “As many of you know, I have a rather special relationship with the bird, the Nightingale. As the short, cold winter nights draw in, I can reveal that some very dark nights have been spent writing a book in praise of this very creature. The history, ornithology, folklore, and the future of this special bird are amongst the areas explored in my first ever book, The Nightingale.”

It is a remarkable book and I learnt so much about the Nightingale beyond an understanding of its ecology.

Sam Lee also organises the annual spring Singing With Nightingales -The Nest Collective events .... “Step silently into the night and listen as the finest musicians in the land duet with the sweet song of the nightingale. Each spring, join your host and special guest musicians on an unforgettable journey into nature. Enjoy fireside food, drink, songs and stories followed by an after-dark walk into the woods to meet the nightingale. Once nestled in ear-tinglingly close range to our bird, you will experience a concert like no other as the musicians join in an improvised duet with their virtuosic night-song.”

I missed it this year but it is on the “must do” list for next year.

George Maynard - “The Birds in the Spring”

One Spring morning early I chanced for to rove,
I sit myself down by the side of a grove,
And there did I hear the sweet nightingales sing.
You never heard so sweet, you never heard so sweet,
You never heard so sweet as the birds in the spring.

All on the cold ground I sit myself down
And the voice of the nightingale re-echoes all round.
Hark, hark how she warbles her notes, I'll declare,
No music, no songster, no music, no songster,
No music, no songster could with them compare.

Come all that are here these birds for to hear,
I pray you pay attention and quickly draw near.
And when you grow old you will have it to sing,
You've heard so sweet, you've heard so sweet,
You've heard so sweet as the nightingales sing.

Slava Ukraini! …. Glory to Ukraine!

💚🦆 🦉🦋🐝🦊🦡🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature