Desert-island tweets
DESERT islands aren’t great places for birdsong, as I know from experience. Unless you find the call of sooty terns a delight to the ear, there isn’t a lot to appreciate audibly. To enjoy birdsong on a desert island, you have to take it with you—and, exactly as music lovers struggle to choose their eight desert-island discs in the eponymous radio programme, so it took me a long time to decide on my eight favourite British bird-songs… but here they are.
1. Herald of the morn
The nightingale, the most famous of songsters, may be a predictable choice, but it is an astonishing singer, with a remarkable ability to combine power with
