Bits, pieces.
In the middle of every night, lately, a bird starts singing in the trees outside my flat. Singing, singing, singing, there alone in the middle of the night. Someone else finally remarked upon it to me today, and I said, I've heard it too! Call me next time it happens, my friend said. Do you really want a call in the middle of the night? I asked. Yes, he said. But what is it? we all wonder. Is it a robin? Is it a blackbird? Is it a nightingale?
In my solipsism I hear it as another late-nighter, trilling away to herself in the dark.
3 Comments:
Winter night-singers in England are likely to be robins. (Nightingales and nightjars winter in Africa, returning to England about April--for which see Chaucer.) Nocturnal singing is used to attract a mate and defend a territory. But you knew that.
And like the bird's situation, people are overhearing your trills and thrilling to them and commenting on them. I hear the dragon is back in town, but he hasn't reappeared in the 'hood.
I've been betting on robins, even as others here say nightingale. Those robins are surprisingly loud, given how small they are...
And I hope that the dragon gets un-jetlagged soon.
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