Nightingale
11 December 2018 09:10![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nym_wibblyI stood at a bus stop next to a garden hedge yesterday, and met a nightingale.
I've been a birdwatcher and birb-lover since the age of seven or so when my parents gifted me membership of the Young Ornithologist's Club. In almost forty years since then I've never seen a nightingale in the flesh, nor heard one sing. They're endangered due to habitat loss, and southern england is at the very northern reach of their natural range in the first place.
This plain brown little bird, bigger than a robin and smaller than a small blackbird, was muttering quietly to itself inside the hedge, a birdsong I'd never heard before, and I turned to see if I could spot and identify the singer. He was at eye-level, not arm's length away from me, and we eyed each other while he looked uncomfortable. Then he did the birdy version of 'welp!' and went back to muttering to himself. I whistled to let him know I wasn't a threat, hoping to provoke him into full-blown nightingale flow. He stopped and listened to my whistle, then went back to his throaty muttering. It reminded me of the way my budgies would sit and mutter to themselves when they were calm. He carried on doing it until my bus came. I didn't get to hear a nightingale sing yesterday, but I think I got to hear one gossip a bit.
I've been a birdwatcher and birb-lover since the age of seven or so when my parents gifted me membership of the Young Ornithologist's Club. In almost forty years since then I've never seen a nightingale in the flesh, nor heard one sing. They're endangered due to habitat loss, and southern england is at the very northern reach of their natural range in the first place.
This plain brown little bird, bigger than a robin and smaller than a small blackbird, was muttering quietly to itself inside the hedge, a birdsong I'd never heard before, and I turned to see if I could spot and identify the singer. He was at eye-level, not arm's length away from me, and we eyed each other while he looked uncomfortable. Then he did the birdy version of 'welp!' and went back to muttering to himself. I whistled to let him know I wasn't a threat, hoping to provoke him into full-blown nightingale flow. He stopped and listened to my whistle, then went back to his throaty muttering. It reminded me of the way my budgies would sit and mutter to themselves when they were calm. He carried on doing it until my bus came. I didn't get to hear a nightingale sing yesterday, but I think I got to hear one gossip a bit.
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Date: 11 Dec 2018 10:39 (UTC)(Happy you got to see a nightingale! Sounds awesome!)
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Date: 12 Dec 2018 19:16 (UTC)I'll be RSS-ing this blog for now, so may not comment much, but I'll be around.
-tumblrerer known as intoni
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Date: 12 Dec 2018 21:48 (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Dec 2018 10:43 (UTC)