Listen to That.

The Old Man and me go down to the beach again today. I take some binoculars so that I can see what birds are about.
No. I'm not much good at telling which from what.
No. Wouldn't class meself as a twitcher.

Anyway I spend some time peering at three quite large, dark, blobs bobbing about at the sea's edge, off away. At one point at least one comes on land and seems a bit... waddly. Too long a neck for a duck.

But what? Maybe Great Northern Divers? Mmmn, would they get out the water? Maybe Geese? Though we don't do Geese much down here. Wild ones that is.

But it got me thinking about bird calls. And the call of the Great Northern Diver has this... spine-tingling feel for me. I have heard one calling ... off Gunwalloe Fishing Cove that was. Eery and mysterious. And so is the Curlew's call. I hear that down Devoran way, or sometimes over at Hayle estuary.

For a heart-lifter I recommend a Skylark, as that composer man wrote - "ascending". We hear them over in the fields on the old Porthleven road near Rinsey. Buzzards calling make me look up. See them wheeling about over our hill.

And I surely do like my Jenny Wren, Robin, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird and Thrush. I likes all sorts. Even the Singing Rook (click here for that Post).

But the northern sound of the Curlew or the Great Northern Diver (or Loon - I kid you not) makes me go all goose flesh, if you'll pardon the expression. And have you ever stood under a flight of starlings as they wheel their amoeba formation over your head? That's goose-fleshy too. It's just the sound of... wing feather whoosh.

You can listen to some bird song yourselves by clicking my link for The Virtual Bird and picking your bird.