One of my great joys after we'd settled down in this current house, was to discover a blackbird had it's territory out the back, one door or so done. Inevitably, in the season it will be singing in the early morning - when I'm doing breakfast, clearing the bomb site etc - and in the early evening when I'm washing up.
Total bliss.
It ties with the skylark as my favourite bird song ever... Owls are always fun to hear and identify, and I'm quite fond of the the robin, but give me a skylark or a blackbird any day....
Please don't mention nightingales. I think half the people who eulogise them in prose and poetry have actually never heard them. I was stunned when I finally did - for all the wrong reasons! I mean, it's just this slightly flat twittering. Not even a song at all. I thought there was something wrong with me... Then I confided in my darling mama, and she had had completely the same experience! So if there is something lacking in me, it's not my fault - it's genetic.
Well as April has (soggily) come round - the blackbird - my blackbird - has started singing again... and the buds are showing on the ornamental cherries in the street... The splendour of nine and ten years ago has been depleted over time, with a least half of the trees falling under the axe of apparent illness... But still there are just enough... A hint of what a walk down that street used to be like, when Papacrow and I would walk round to his parent's house.. That gentle fall of petals lilting on the soft spring breeze, like walking through a fragrant snow storm...
The Wrong House
A.A. Milne
I went into a house, and it wasn't a house,
It has big steps and a great big hall;
But it hasn't got a garden,
A garden,
A garden,
It isn't like a house at all.
I went into a house, and it wasn't a house,
It has a big garden and great high wall;
But it hasn't got a may-tree,
A may-tree,
A may-tree,
It isn't like a house at all.
I went into a house, and it wasn't a house -
Slow white petals from the may-tree fall;
But it hasn't got a blackbird,
A blackbird,
A blackbird,
It isn't like a house at all.
I went into a house, and I thought it was a house,
I could hear from the may-tree the blackbird call...
But nobody listened to it,
Nobody liked it,
Nobody wanted it at all
Total bliss.
It ties with the skylark as my favourite bird song ever... Owls are always fun to hear and identify, and I'm quite fond of the the robin, but give me a skylark or a blackbird any day....
Please don't mention nightingales. I think half the people who eulogise them in prose and poetry have actually never heard them. I was stunned when I finally did - for all the wrong reasons! I mean, it's just this slightly flat twittering. Not even a song at all. I thought there was something wrong with me... Then I confided in my darling mama, and she had had completely the same experience! So if there is something lacking in me, it's not my fault - it's genetic.
Well as April has (soggily) come round - the blackbird - my blackbird - has started singing again... and the buds are showing on the ornamental cherries in the street... The splendour of nine and ten years ago has been depleted over time, with a least half of the trees falling under the axe of apparent illness... But still there are just enough... A hint of what a walk down that street used to be like, when Papacrow and I would walk round to his parent's house.. That gentle fall of petals lilting on the soft spring breeze, like walking through a fragrant snow storm...
The Wrong House
A.A. Milne
I went into a house, and it wasn't a house,
It has big steps and a great big hall;
But it hasn't got a garden,
A garden,
A garden,
It isn't like a house at all.
I went into a house, and it wasn't a house,
It has a big garden and great high wall;
But it hasn't got a may-tree,
A may-tree,
A may-tree,
It isn't like a house at all.
I went into a house, and it wasn't a house -
Slow white petals from the may-tree fall;
But it hasn't got a blackbird,
A blackbird,
A blackbird,
It isn't like a house at all.
I went into a house, and I thought it was a house,
I could hear from the may-tree the blackbird call...
But nobody listened to it,
Nobody liked it,
Nobody wanted it at all
(interestingly, this isn't a blackbird from my neck of the woods, it does sound a little different... I have heard there are indeed bird dialiects!)
3 comments:
Yes, I've heard that about birds. D was telling me yesterday that magpie's mimic sounds they hear around them, too. She said that in the 70s they were observed to be making trim phone noises.
Nice post. Made me feel all mellow and spring like at the same time, which was weird, but nice. (Mellow is usually reserved for Summer :)
Allie - I think I've heard starlings do that also, but I havn't heard it for myself... The new zealand Lyre bird is the world famous mimic of course!
Kelly - wow, cool :) I hasten to add it's not mellow all the time in my house I'm afraid :( which is one of the reasons I love that blackbird so much I suppose - because it's like instant audio vallium. ahhhhhh!
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