In spring, bird song is everywhere in the garden. Song thrushes compete loudly for weeks and many other birds can be heard too. Robins have a loud song and a quiet song, both pleasant to the ears - if I feed a robin, it will often sing its quiet song on a nearby branch. I recently bought a voice-activated dictaphone to record the number of plant labels required for printing and found it would not switch off when I stopped talking. It was only when I played it back that I realised just how constant the birdsong is throughout the day (despite me not being particularly aware of it).
I particularly like willow warbler song but could do without the constant cheeping of house sparrows, the birdy equivalent of heavy metal. As well as garden birds, there are other vocalists about - ravens croak deeply and hooded crows do the same in a higher key. Shore birds can be heard from the garden and ducks on the loch quack or whistle depending on whether they are mallard or wigeon. Red-throated divers sounding like automatic ducks, fly overhead in spring and early summer as they commute from small hill lochans to the sea and back.
One bird which arrives mid-April and has an unmistakable song is the cuckoo though they seem to be present in lesser numbers than previously. There is a local superstition that it is unlucky to hear a cuckoo before breakfast and people would keep a biscuit under their pillow to eat on awakening.
This young cuckoo first landed on the vent of the lean-to glasshouse we use as a conservatory. It then flew onto the potentilla bush, posed for the camera then flew off in search of its overworked foster parents. A lucky shot as cuckoos are often heard but seldom seen!
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Photos and text by Ian Lamb.