Dusk is closing in on a Kent woodland. I am rooted to the spot, listening to a nightingale sing from deep within a thicket. His song is so exquisite, so intricate, so stupendous, it’s all I can do not to break into enraptured applause when the song gives way to silence.
While not all birds are maestros in the league of the nightingale, birdsong – be it the melodic noodling of a blackbird, the resonant refrain of a song thrush or the tumbling notes of a chaffinch – always lifts my mood and makes the world feel like a better place.
I’m far from alone in finding comfort and joy in nature’s soundscapes. “The sounds of nature have long generated powerful reactions in humans, inspiring music and poetry,” says Dr Rachel Buxton, assistant professor at the Institute of Environmental and Interdisciplinary Sciences at Carleton University in Canada. Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No 6’ reputedly depicts the song of the nightingale, cuckoo and quail, while folk singer Judy
