On returning home after three weeks'
absence, the most obvious change in the garden, apart from
signs of neglect, is the absence of birdsong. I have heard
only a few, fitful notes from a wren. It is the quiet time when most birds have finished nesting and have gone into
moult. So this may not be the best time to consider the
merits of different songs! Which bird is the best songster? The nightingale is often the yardstick by which others are judged. The bluethroat is the 'Swedish nightingale' (as was the opera singer Jenny Lind), while frogs are 'Dutch nightingales'! Yet Shakespeare could write
The Nightingale, if she could sing by day How right: the Bard did not realise that the nightingale does sing by day! But the song of a nightingale heard on a still, clear moonlit night is incomparable. Yet some consider the blackcap to be the better singer. I do not find it exceptional, except that it is nice to hear it in my garden. I prefer the blackbird, especially when a concert of half a dozen singing at dawn or dusk drowns out all the other birds. The robin is a close runner-up, especially when it sings at dusk. (It was more likely to have been a robin that sang so memorably in Berkeley Square.) I also like the simple notes of the chiff-chaff coming from the bare branches at the end of winter, the ringing phrases of a mistle thrush, while corn buntings and yellowhammers conjure up hot days in the fields. In all these examples, it is the association that is important and any attempt that I have tried at objective comparison of musical excellence has failed. It is like the Judgement of Paris: all three ladies had their good points but beauty ultimately lies in the eye of the beholder. So quality of birdsong lies in the ear. I will be interested to hear of anyone's preferences.
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