Between The Ears - Jamming With Birds

BETWEEN THE EARS - JAMMING WITH BIRDS (320kbs-m4a/66mb/29mins)
BBC Radio 3 broadcast: 5th June 2022

"In May, I sing night and day,
In June, I change my tune,
In July, far off I fly..."

Ten years ago, musician Cosmo Sheldrake started making an album of bird songs, each track inspired by an endangered species on the 'Birds of Conservation Concern' list. The album is called Wake Up Calls, a nod to the dawn chorus, but also because it is doing a second kind of waking up. Each track is a celebration of the birds that we are rapidly losing. Birds like the nightingale, the mistle thrush, the skylark, the cuckoo. With their decline comes the loss of the musical, emotional and cultural richness they bring to our lives.

For Cosmo, the process of making music with these birds opened up a whole new way of thinking about composition. It's the birds who set the tempos and inform the melodies. You could even say it’s the birds who are the lead vocalists, provoking questions around intellectual property: who owns this music? Should the birds get publishing royalties? Are the birds collaborators of sorts?

Featuring, in order of appearance, writer Robert MacFarlane, poet Erin Robinsong, sound ecologist Bernie Krause, artist Marcus Coates, musician Brian Eno, musician Sam Lee and artist Rachel Berwick.

Produced by Becky Ripley.

Pallid Swift, Hoylake 31st October 2022

Photo © Peter Sutton

Last Thursday 27th October 2022 the first record for Cheshire & Wirral of Pallid Swift was found by Jane Turner flying over her house on Hoylake promenade. The Pallid Swift didn't stay long before departing east. Another Pallid Swift was seen, again by Jane Turner, wizzing along the tideline on Saturday 29th October 2022 (although I don't know if enough characteristics were observed on this bird to clinch the id).

This morning, Monday 31st October 2022, another different Pallid Swift was observed at Hoylake, found by local birder Stu Brown. Fortunately, I was able to get over to Hoylake with Geoff Bond & Mark Wotham and watched the Pallid Swift on several occasions during the couple of hours we were on the prom. Usually, quite distant back and forth above the houses. It came closer a couple of times on its circuit.

Incredibly, later in the day a second Pallid Swift appeared! It now appears there were three birds with another at the other end of the prom by Roman Road, found by local birder Steve T!

There's been a large influx of Pallid Swifts across the whole of the UK in the last week or so due to the southerly airstream of warm air from Europe.

Between The Ears - The Nightingales Of Berlin

BETWEEN THE EARS - THE NIGHTINGALES OF BERLIN (320kbs-m4a/66mb/29mins)
BBC Radio 3 broadcast: 6th June 2021

In early summer, as darkness descends, Berlin resonates with the sound of Nightingales. You can hear their haunting, ever-changing songs in parks, woodlands and gardens across the city. From Kreuzberg to Treptower, Tempelhof to Hasenheide, Berlin has become a refuge for one of the most celebrated and mythologised birds on earth.

The city is the summer home for over one and a half thousand nesting pairs. Nobody's quite sure why Nightingales have adopted the city so enthusiastically. Maybe it's Berlin's enlightened policy towards park management which leaves areas of untended scrub and dense bushes providing ground-nesting Nightingales with perfect cover.

Whatever the reason, this blossoming of Nightingales means that their song has become the soundtrack to countless moments in Berlin's residents' lives: lovers listening to the Nightingale's melody in the depths of the night; a childhood memory of illness soothed by hearing the song – and the German name Nachtigall – for the first time; and a visit to one of the few architectural remnants of Germania, Hitler's megalomaniacal plan for a new city on the site of Berlin.

This programme gathers memories of the Nightingale's lingering, multi-faceted song and the sounds of city evenings to create an audio portrait of Berlin, its people and the bird to whom it's given refuge.

We hear too from a group of musicians who seek out Nightingales in the city's parks to play alongside them. They describe feeling their way into the Nightingale's song, the call-and-response between bird and human and the sense of each listening to the other. Some even describe themselves as Nightingales: they've travelled from far countries to make music in Berlin.

The programme is made in collaboration with Berlin Museum of Natural History's Forschungsfall Nachtigall project that asks members of the public to record Nightingales and send in their recordings – along with stories and memories of the bird which has become a symbol of the city.

With the voices of Sarah Darwin, Korhan Erel, Gaby Hartel, Volker Lankow, Christopher and Erika Lehmpfuhl, Charlotte Neidhardt, Philip Oltermann, Sascha Penshorn, Tina Roeske, David Rothenberg and Cymin Samawatie.

Featuring music from David Rothenberg's 'Nightingale Cities' project and 'Berlin Bülbül' by David Rothenberg and Korhan Erel.

Location recordings in Berlin by Martyna Poznańska and Monika Dorniak.

Producer: Jeremy Grange

Photograph courtesy of Kim Mortega

Steve Waters - Song Of The Reed - 4. Bittern

STEVE WATERS - SONG OF THE REED - 4. BITTERN (320kbs-m4a/100mb/44mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 21st March 2022

Conclusion of this seasonal drama following life on a wetlands nature reserve in Norfolk over one year. Starring Sophie Okonedo and Mark Rylance.

Ian (Mark Rylance) returns to Fleggwick for the first time since suffering serious injuries during the winter's flood and finds it as beautiful and full of life as ever, but still endangered as Liv (Sophie Okonedo) struggles to find a way to keep the Reserve going.

This is the fourth and final episode of an innovative drama, with instalments recorded on location at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen in Norfolk every three months, documenting the extraordinary wetlands habitat as it changes through the seasons.

This episode features the Bittern as its special guest star – a characterful bird known for its booming call.

Song of the Reed, by Steve Waters, is informed by the sounds of the reserve as well as the real work and science of conservation taking place in the face of rapid environmental change in the wetlands of Norfolk, and everywhere.

Cast:
Liv ..... Sophie Okonedo
Ian ..... Mark Rylance
Tam ..... Ella Dorman Gajic
Kay ..... Molly Naylor
Theo ..... Tom Goodman-Hill
Nikki ..... Karen Hill
Sadegh ..... Zaydun Khalaf
Voice of the Reed ..... Christine Kavanagh
Other parts played by staff and volunteers at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen

Written by Steve Waters
Music by Michael Somerset Ward with Rebecca Hearne
Sound design by Alisdair McGregor
Produced and Directed by Boz Temple-Morris

A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4

Steve Waters - Song Of The Reed - 3. Eel

STEVE WATERS - SONG OF THE REED - 3. EEL (320kbs-m4a/100mb/44mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 21st December 2021

Ian (played by Mark Rylance) has gone to work for neighbouring landowner Theo Buckhurst as Liv (Sophie Okonedo) prepares to sell up to Wildscapes – but nature, as ever, has a different plan, and a major flood event is forecast to engulf Fleggwick.

The third in the series of Steve Waters' seasonal dramas follows the life of a fictional wetlands nature reserve, over the period of one year.

Storm clouds are well and truly established over the nature reserve Liv has inherited from her father. The oncoming flood will bring a pulse of salt water into the Fen, threatening countless fresh water species. And with plans to sell Fleggwick also complete, the future looks decidedly insecure in this otherwise beautiful corner of Norfolk.

Song of the Reed is recorded on location at RSPB's Strumpshaw Fen. The story is informed by the sounds of the reserve as well as the real work and science of conservation taking place in the face of rapid environmental change in the wetlands of Norfolk, and everywhere.

Cast:
Liv ..... Sophie Okonedo
Ian ..... Mark Rylance
Tam ..... Ella Dorman Gajic
Kay ..... Molly Naylor
Theo ..... Tom Goodman-Hill
Nikki ..... Karen Hill
Charlie ..... Jimmy Rutherford
Voice of the Reed ..... Christine Kavanagh
Other parts played by staff and volunteers at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen

Written by Steve Waters
Music by Michael Somerset Ward with Rebecca Hearne
Cello played by Liz Hanks
Sound design by Alisdair McGregor
Produced and Directed by Boz Temple-Morris

A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4

Steve Waters - Song Of The Reed - 2. Whirlpool

STEVE WATERS - SONG OF THE REED - 2. WHIRLPOOL (320kbs-m4a/100mb/44mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 22nd September 2021

We return to Fleggwick where the search is on to find the miniscule Whirlpool Ramshorn Snail – a tiny creature whose presence would bolster the case for the reserve as a habitat for rare species.

Sophie Okonedo and Mark Rylance star in the second of Steve Waters' seasonal dramas following the life of a fictional wetlands nature reserve, over the period of one year.

Fleggwick, like the ecosystem it protects, is under threat. The site was not financially sustainable when its founder passed away, so his daughter Liv (Sophie Okonedo) needs to find a way for it to survive. But if that means selling out to 'trendy conservation', then Ian (Mark Rylance), the Warden, wants nothing to do with it.

Song of the Reed is recorded on location at RSPB's Strumpshaw Fen. The story is informed by the real work and science of conservation taking place in the face of rapid environmental change in the wetlands of Norfolk, and everywhere. This episode also features Tom Fewins of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, playing himself.

Cast:
Liv ..... Sophie Okonedo
Ian ..... Mark Rylance
Tam ..... Ella Dorman Gajic
Kay ..... Molly Naylor
Sadegh ..... Zaydun Khalaf
Theo ..... Tom Goodman-Hill
Nikki ..... Karen Hill
Tom ..... Tom Fewins
Voice of the Reed ..... Christine Kavanagh
Other parts played by staff and volunteers at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen

Music by Michael Somerset Ward with Rebecca Hearne
Sound design by Alisdair McGregor
Produced and Directed by Boz Temple-Morris

A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4

Steve Waters - Song Of The Reed - 1. Swallowtail

STEVE WATERS - SONG OF THE REED - 1. SWALLOWTAIL (320kbs-m4a/101mb/44mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 21st June 2021

Sophie Okonedo and Mark Rylance star in the first of Steve Waters' seasonal dramas following the life of Fleggwick, a fictional wetlands nature reserve, over the period of one year.

Fleggwick, like the ecosystem it protects, is under threat. The site was not financially sustainable when its founder passed away so his daughter Liv (Sophie Okonedo) needs to find a way for it to survive. But if that means selling out to 'trendy conservation' then Ian (Mark Rylance), the Warden, wants nothing to do with it.

Recorded on location at RSPB's Strumpshaw Fen, the story is informed by the real work and science of conservation taking place in the face of rapid environmental change in the wetlands of Norfolk, and everywhere.

It's a rainy summer's day and a Swallowtail Safari is being held at the reserve with members of the public, as well as a manager from WildScapes, visiting Fleggwick with the hope of catching a glimpse of the elusive and utterly beautiful swallowtail butterfly. The future of the reserve may ride on it.

Cast:
Liv ..... Sophie Okonedo
Ian ..... Mark Rylance
Tam ..... Ella Dorman Gajic
Kay ..... Molly Naylor
Sadegh ..... Zaydun Khalaf
Nikki ..... Karen Hill
Voice of the Reed ..... Christine Kavanagh
Other parts played by staff and volunteers at RSPB Strumpshaw Fen

Written by Steve Waters
Music by Michael Somerset Ward with Rebecca Hearne
Sound Design by Alisdair McGregor

Produced and Directed by Boz Temple-Morris
A Holy Mountain production for BBC Radio 4