Bake-a-yarn: All Ears

Thursday 11 May 2023

I don't know much about music

but there's an ensemble of choristers out there

if you're prepared to skulk and snoop around bushes

under trees, along hedgerows-

face tipped to the sky you might even see them.

At any rate you will hear a wide range of pitch

from bass to soprano, tenor to alto

and see, at least sometimes, in glimpses, flashes or flutters

our winged friends wearing a kaleidoscope of cassocks

singing to different beats but managing harmony-

Pips and caps and finches

tweeting and chirping to the lower tones

of wood pigeon and rook

and someone heard a cuckoo

though I'd take that with a pinch of salt.

My own app detected curlew a few nights ago

the bird marsh wader, half way down our suburban road,

its haunting cry a backdrop to more cheerful warblings.

But apps do err and if it's here

that bird is far off track

and though I stand on the side of caution

I'm keeping my hopes up and my ear to the air.