The third in our feature series Nature at the Proms is on Sibelius, his love of nature, and the swans that inspired his most popular symphony.

Symphony no. 5 and The Swan of Tuonela are at the Proms tomorrow night.  During the interval two academics, Daniel Grimley and Simon Shaw-Miller talk to Martin Handley about Sibelius the nature-lover.  

Today is Hen Harrier Day.  Much is made of the so-called glorious twelfth, the start of the grouse-shooting season.  People can make their own minds up about the self-evident fact that if you want to eat grouse, grouse have to die.  But this year Hen Harrier Day, two days before the start of the grouse season, has been convened to celebrate and mourn the beautiful hen harrier, the legally protected bird of prey that also has to die to bring grouse to your table, and as a result is almost extinct in England.

Hen harrier day is marked by four major events and one minor one.  At 10 am there will be a thunderclap (I added my tweet but don’t ask me to explain how it works) and throughout the day people will be gathering at three beautiful locations:  South Tyne Trail at Lambley near Haltwhistle to create and assemble a ‘selfie trail’, the Upper Derwent Valley, Derbyshire, but this is now fully subscribed, and the Forest of Bowland, Dunsop Bridge, Lancashire.  More details here.

The minor event is me posting the score to Skydancer off to the London Contemporary Chamber Orchestra who give its premiere in October (see What’s On).  It’s a short piece that tries to capture the bleak landscape of our heather moorlands and the bouncing, dancing flight of a pair of skydancers – the other name for hen harriers.  That’s also the name of an RSPB project to raise awareness of their plight and highlight the public support this species enjoys, even in grouse-shooting hotspots where a tiny minority threatens the future of this symbol of the British uplands.

Hen Harrier Day sees us launch an occasional series of features and blogs linking uplands, rivers, and sea, that will run through August, September and October.

Producer Robin Perkins's idea for a music fund-raiser to help endangered birds in South America has reached a key milestone.  The Kickstarter project to raise the production costs has been successful, and the project will definitely go ahead!

Robin, who wrote a guest blog about the project two weeks ago says: "thanks to dozens of supporters who donated through Kickstarter, we actually exceeded our target by 1200 euros, which means we can go ahead, and provide even more support for endangered species. Please pass on my thanks to readers of NATURAL LIGHT for their support".

The project involves getting musicians from seven different South American countries to record a track in response to the songs of eleven different endangered birds.  The resulting album will be sold to raise money for conservation in Ecuador.

One day left to hear Arlene Sierra's Urban Birds on the BBC iPlayer. Birds and insects are often featured in Sierra's works – including two piano albums entitled Birds and Insects vols. 1 and 2. In . In Urban Birds recordings of blackcap, skylark and cuckoo and responses from three pianists form an intricately-textured piece.  It was broadcast on Hear and Now last Saturday as part of the first New Music Biennial. 

Other new commissions in the same concert included weather-generated sounds from instrument builder Yann Seznec.  Both composers explain to presenter Sara Mohr-Pietsch how their pieces came about.

Robin Perkins, also known as producer El Búho, asked eleven musicians from across South America to create a track each, inspired by the song of a different endangered species.  NATURAL LIGHT invited him to write a guest blog.  He also sent us this video!

Robin says: 

From Patagonia to the Amazon rainforest, South America has some of the most biologically diverse areas on the planet. It is also home to an incredible range of bird species, many of which are under threat of extinction, such as the Hooded Grebe with only around 800 adults left in the wild or the critically endangered Araripe Manakin, endemic to Brazil.

Through A Guide to the Birdsong of South America I want to help tell their tale and spread their song through inspiring music by some of the continent's rising stars. 

The idea began a few years back when, as a producer I started experimenting with the idea of making music inspired by birdsong.  I knew a lot of bands and producers across the continent, and thought, why not use this to highlight the wave of exciting musicians across South America, as well as the plight of its wildlife?

I came up with a tentative list of threatened birds from the seven countries represented by the list of artists. Then I took this list to the community birdsong site Xeno Canto to source and get permission to use the rare song samples themselves. Once I had 22 birds, each musician chose their song and species and went to get inspired!

I wanted to ensure the project also supports the organisations working on the ground to protect these birds. I reached out to an NGO called Aves y Conservación, a partner of BirdLife International in Ecuador that works to protect and raise awareness about bird species. Proceeds from the album will support them and their work.

I have also been working with the graphic designer Scott Partridge who has created 12 unique illustrations, one for each species.

The list of artists is confirmed, they have chosen their birds and are now hard at work making their birdsong inspired tracks. These will be completed in the next month and from there I will send the tracks to be mastered and produce the album. Scott's bird designs are done and looking fantastic (see below) so we can't wait to get them printed!

Now I’m raising the 2,500 Euros needed for professional mastering, vinyl pressing and packaging, the illustrations, printing costs and the distribution all over the world. I have all of this lined up and ready to go. At the last count we had over 1700 Euro in the form of dozens of small donations through our Kickstarter project