As the BBC marks 100 years of its first outdoor recording – a duet with a nightingale – we release our own spring playlist of tracks from the natural world
THE HOOTING hunter
Against May’s waxing and waning flower moon, the male tawny owl sounds its quintessential “tu-wit” and “woohoo” through the woodland as it delivers prey to feed chicks gearing up to leave the nest. As night casts its velvet folds over the countryside, mice and voles scuttle for cover as this compact and consummate hunter glides over the warming ground on speckled brown wings. Surveying nature’s buffet with his dark eyes from high in the branches, he swoops to conquer. Then, as day breaks, he melts once again into the branches to sleep in restful camouflage.
THE DANCING doodlebug
These handsome brown scarab beetles, with their distinctive fan-like antennae, serenade the spring sunset and crepuscular hours. Also known as maybugs, common cockchafers emerge as noisy adults in large numbers this month to dance clumsily around the glow of streetlights and windows, bumping into panes and people in equal measure. Propelling their large bodies through the air with a droning buzz, they are harmless but alarming in unexpected encounters. Their wings produce a sound so loud and relentless that their other nickname – the doodlebug – was also used to describe Germany’s V-1 flying bomb in the Second World War.
THE COURTING toad
With a surprisingly loud voice for such a small amphibian, the midwife toad projects its high-pitched “beep beep” to the world this month to find a mate. Endearing at first, its piercing tone is akin to a smoke alarm with a low battery, a relentless sound throughout the night and the bane of anyone nearby trying to get a good night’s sleep. For the female that responds, the benefit is in some exceptional parenting from the keen father. Once fertilised, the eggs are wound around his back legs to look after carefully for six weeks until they hatch into tadpoles.
THE NOVELTY nightingale
Ahundred years ago this month, cellist Beatrice Harrison played a duet in her Surrey garden with a nightingale, recorded as the BBC’s first live outside broadcast. The extraordinary avian input was later revealed to be fake. But listeners were so captivated that Beatrice received tens of thousands of fan letters. The nightingale remains one of nature’s most beautiful singers. With a unique song made up of a rich variety of phrases and compositions, this virtuoso is unsurpassed in power and drama. Its numbers are in sharp decline, so if you hear its song, consider yourself fortunate.
THE BABBLING brook
The rush and tumult of brooks, swollen with late spring water, fills the air with urgency as they tumble over earth and stones to reach their destination. Cutting t
