Beardyman And The Mimics

BEARDYMAN AND THE MIMICS (320kbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 23rd September 2021

Champion beatboxer "Beardyman", aka Darren Foreman, is a master of vocal artistry.

He's able to make all manner of noises, including entire percussive music tracks, using only his mouth, throat and tongue. Darren's been inspired by the Lyrebird, king of the animal mimics and able to replicate sounds ranging from a kookaburra's laughing call to a tourist's camera shutter to a chainsaw.

In fact, he's been so mesmerised by this bird's Oscar-worthy performance, that he's venturing on a personal journey to unveil the secrets of animal vocal mimicry.

Along the way, he'll encounter ornithologist and musican Bill Oddie, birdsong scientific experts and a whole new world of sounds.

Producer: Kirsty Henderson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2008.

Sounds Natural - Bernard Cribbins

SOUNDS NATURAL - BERNARD CRIBBINS (320kbs-m4a/68mb/29mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 29th April 2022

From the Meadow Pipit to the Red-Backed Shrike.

Actor Bernard Cribbins talks to Derek Jones about his love of bird watching, fishing and the importance of conservation.

Aided by recordings from the BBC Sound Archive.

Producer: John Burton.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 1972.

Discovery - Wild Inside: Great Grey Owl

DISCOVERY - WILD INSIDE: GREAT GREY OWL (320kbs-m4a/62mb/27mins)
BBC World Service broadcast: 28th November 2022

One of the world's large owls by length, the Great Grey Owl is an enigmatic predator of coniferous forests close to the Arctic tundra. It's most often seen hunting around dawn and dusk, when it perches silently at the edges of clearings. But as Prof Ben Garrod and Dr Jess French delve deep inside to understand its true secret to survival, they find the deep feathery coat belies a deceptively small head and body that‘s evolved unbelievably powerful abilities to silently detect and ambush unsuspecting prey.

BBC North West Tonight - Mersey Tidal Power report

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