“I am a blackbird, singing my song”
This is what I used to hear when I opened the front door early in the morning. That is, I heard a blackbird from across the street, and the first part of his song sounded just like, “I am a blackbird”, and I added the rest (and more, but that’s another story!)
At dusk, he’d be singing from a chimney pot a few houses away, and the last few notes would be scratchy and squeaky. It was almost like he lost concentration at the end.
He’d spend time in our silver birch, and use the birdbath regularly.
A few months ago, I realised I hadn’t heard him for a while. And I hadn’t seen a blackbird in my garden for some time either.
I really miss ‘my’ blackbird. I don’t know why they’re absent, but through Southampton Wildlife, a Facebook group, I learned about the Usutu virus. This article from the RHS gives advice on how to reduce the spread of this mosquito-borne disease, including minimising standing water and cleaning birdbaths regularly.
Though the birds seem to be missing from my area, they are still around in other parts of the city, so I take heart from this. I appreciate the birds I do still see and hear in my garden – starlings and sparrows, blue tits, goldfinches and greenfinches. The occasional wren, dunnock and sparrowhawk. And of course, the summertime swifts. But I really miss the blackbird. It’s hit me quite hard, because it’s brought home to me what it’s like to lose a species. Even sadder is that many people probably haven’t noticed they’ve gone, because they didn’t notice them in the first place. When I took a singing toy bird to a nature connection event, I was shocked that some people didn’t recognise the bird or his song. I thought I’d chosen a bird that would be known in the urban area we were in. But it wasn’t familiar to everyone.
Remember there was a poll to choose Britain’s national bird some years back?
The robin won, but a colleague at the time said to me that she thought it should have been a blackbird, for their song. I suppose robins are just so much more familiar to people, through Christmas cards if nothing else. According to this BBC report, the blackbird was in second place until children’s votes were counted.
The poll was a decade ago, in 2015. Back then, I have to admit that I hadn’t paid much attention to blackbirds myself. I hadn’t really noticed them, perhaps because they seemed so commonplace. Hearing a Tawny Owl from my flat in Portswood was exciting because it was unusual. So maybe Blackbirds becoming less common will give them an edge, and more people will pay attention to them. I hope so, because we need to notice them, to treasure them, before it’s too late.
Dandelion Nature 