It’s perhaps one of those things than many of us have promised to experience ‘some time’, rising early and venturing out to a suitable place in order to hear the early morning song of the birds in their own habitat. It’s a fact that many of us have also lay fitfully awake in the dawning hours, listening to the first tentative notes of birdsong that invade our homes, hoping not to hear them. The alarm clock beckoning before long and another trying day ahead.
I first wondered about those first few notes when I was a young boy. The ones that gradually gathered tuneful momentum and confidence through my bedroom window during the ‘wee sma’ hours’. I didn’t know the name of what I was listening to, all I knew was that it it heralded a new day very, very soon. I came to listen for it more and more. My fascination fr it continues to this day.
Perhaps this is an appropriate time of the day for you to read this, perhaps it is not, but would you like to join me for a few moments in lovely Sherwood Forest to listen to the sweet bird song of the dawn? Surely in these changing times we still have a few moments for such contemplation? Click on the Thrush
I woke before the morning,
I was happy all the day,
I never said an ugly word,
but smiled and stuck to play.
And now at last the sun
is going down behind the wood,
And I am very happy,
for I know that I’ve been good.
My bed is waiting cool and fresh,
with linen smooth and fair,
And I must off to sleep again,
and not forget my prayer.
I know that, till tomorrow
I shall see the sun arise,
No ugly dream shall fright my mind,
no ugly sight my eyes,
But slumber hold me tightly
till I waken in the dawn,
And hear the thrushes singing
in the lilacs round the lawn.
R. L. Stevenson
THE TEARS OF A CLOWN 
I always remember the trushes in our garden when I was a child-and the scary owls in the tree outside our front door for that matter. When I take the children out these days its hard to see many kinds of birds. City life I suppose.
And I love R.L.S. a simple poet and a great story teller.
It always seems to me that the type of birds that one sees in urban places has changed dramatically over the years, Shell. Remember the days when the vast majority of birds in the garden were the humble sparrows? Now they’re hardly in evidence.
Conversely I often get hawks and other more unusual birds visiting the garden these days.
—
Wait a minute – hawks! That’s probably where the sparrows went…scratches chin…
Hi Stu, years ago in the garden next door sang a song thrush at the top of a tall larch tree. He used to get carried away trying to encourage females of his species; I used to worry that he might fall off the top of the tree because he sang so madly. I miss him so. Christine (Jackson – Nottstalgia)
Such a shame that we don’t hear so many song thrushes these days Christine, they are an absolute treat.