Andrew Dawes produces of Radio 4's Tweet of the Day - World Birds, the ninety seconds of pure pleasure that many of us wake up to each morning. It is also the source material for NATURAL LIGHT's Re:Tweet of the Day, exploring the connections between birdsong and the artists it inspires.
Andrew is also a Trustee of the Richard Jefferies Museum Trust.
Andrew is also a Trustee of the Richard Jefferies Museum Trust.
Richard Jefferies It was one of our greatest nature commentators and writers Richard Jefferies (1848 - 1887) who wrote, in what would be one of his last essays, Hours of Spring: “It is sweet on awaking in the early morn to listen to the small bird singing on the tree. No sound of voice or flute is like to the bird.” Jefferies beautifully highlights that which nature writers, and indeed lovers of the great outdoors, have revelled in through the years, an encounter with wildlife, a timeless immersion within a ‘spirit of place’. Almost 150 years later Radio 4’s Tweet of the Day humbly aims to provide that sweet awakening, in all its forms, for its many listeners around the world.
Where do I begin? Should I choose the most flamboyant birds? The most endangered? The anthropomorphic cute and cuddly, or even the fearsome and scary? Sir David Attenborough expressed at an early stage a willingness to record for the second series in July, which was delightful. However having begun working on the series in mid-May, this meant I had a first recording deadline with Sir David in just 9 weeks.
Where do I begin? Should I choose the most flamboyant birds? The most endangered? The anthropomorphic cute and cuddly, or even the fearsome and scary? Sir David Attenborough expressed at an early stage a willingness to record for the second series in July, which was delightful. However having begun working on the series in mid-May, this meant I had a first recording deadline with Sir David in just 9 weeks.
Luckily I had at my disposal the phenomenal team involved in the first series of Tweet of the Day, winner of the prestigious Broadcasting Guild Award. So we had a producer, writer, researcher and a script editor but as yet, no birds, and no birdsong.
Tweet of the Day planning focussed in on the 120 species I thought merited inclusion. The flamboyant instantly came into mind. Birds which bring wonder and glamour to the natural world; the blue bird of paradise, emperor penguin, blue footed booby, and resplendent quetzal slipped under the wire like ornithological limbo dancers. Others waited patiently in the wings as encore understudies. The New Zealand wrybill, the only bird with a bill curved to the right, or the Galapagos Islands blood sucking vampire finch for example. I now had the birds, but what of the birdsong?
Tweet of the Day planning focussed in on the 120 species I thought merited inclusion. The flamboyant instantly came into mind. Birds which bring wonder and glamour to the natural world; the blue bird of paradise, emperor penguin, blue footed booby, and resplendent quetzal slipped under the wire like ornithological limbo dancers. Others waited patiently in the wings as encore understudies. The New Zealand wrybill, the only bird with a bill curved to the right, or the Galapagos Islands blood sucking vampire finch for example. I now had the birds, but what of the birdsong?
being paid to listen to birdsong was manna from Heaven
As the world’s leading wildlife production house, the BBC’s Natural History Unit has been to every corner of the globe. For two weeks I immersed myself in this vast catalogue of natural sound. As an avid birdwatcher being paid to listen to bird song was like manna from heaven. Amazingly though some species I desired were not in the BBC’s back catalogue. Enter stage left the Macaulay Library in America, part of the Cornell Labs of Ornithology. What the BBC didn’t have, Macaulay did. The series had hatched.
Bell Miner by John Manger CSIRO We are roughly half way through the episodes. The series still excites me. It is what makes me rise from my bed at 5am most mornings to come into work. One hundred and eighty words, that’s all, roughly 60 seconds of speech. My passion is to let the birdsong breathe, to allow the listener to be transported to that country for a moment, to stop and above all listen. I hope I have achieved this. Certainly looking at the non-broadcast figures Tweet of the Day is now in the top 5 programmes being downloaded from the Radio 4 website across the UK. Worldwide, our listeners are growing steadily, with 150,000 daily subscribers to the audio server SoundCloud.
With just 120 bird species to choose from, some listeners' favourites will of course be missing, yet I hope we have brought to the radio schedules the best of what the avian world has to offer; the spectacular, the bizarre, the songsters or in some cases those species we are about to lose forever. Above all for each species to warrant inclusion it had to satisfy an ultimate editorial driver – the voice of birds and our relationship with them. Tweet of the Day is about connection which leads to an awakening as to what is all around us. This is what drives my passion for this series.
As the airwaves crackle into life at two minutes to 6 each weekday morning, Tweet of the Day goes part of the way to proclaim that “…No sound of voice or flute is like to the bird”. I’d like to think Richard Jefferies would approve.
Andrew Dawes
With just 120 bird species to choose from, some listeners' favourites will of course be missing, yet I hope we have brought to the radio schedules the best of what the avian world has to offer; the spectacular, the bizarre, the songsters or in some cases those species we are about to lose forever. Above all for each species to warrant inclusion it had to satisfy an ultimate editorial driver – the voice of birds and our relationship with them. Tweet of the Day is about connection which leads to an awakening as to what is all around us. This is what drives my passion for this series.
As the airwaves crackle into life at two minutes to 6 each weekday morning, Tweet of the Day goes part of the way to proclaim that “…No sound of voice or flute is like to the bird”. I’d like to think Richard Jefferies would approve.
Andrew Dawes
Read more "countryside musings from a Northumbrian awake in the midst of a dream in the deep West Country" at Andrew Dawes' blog The Wessex Reiver
Andrew provides some further musings - from Marconi to Kate Bush - in his introduction to NATURAL LIGHT's Re:Tweet of the Day page. Our next Re:Tweet will be the Bell Miner on 14 November.
Andrew provides some further musings - from Marconi to Kate Bush - in his introduction to NATURAL LIGHT's Re:Tweet of the Day page. Our next Re:Tweet will be the Bell Miner on 14 November.
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