The Northern Nightingale

or the March Nightingale as the poet John Cl;are described the blackcap which is increasingly resident in Britain all year round. We started to hear its liquid song in the last couple of years, as this unassuming little bird not only stayed over winter but has been seen increasingly in urban gardens, no doubt sustained by committed bird feeders. In the old days we used to give the birds scraps and my Mum hung the turkey carcass on the washing line. Now I am amazed by the range of bird food available, no doubt hugely profitable, but our local discount store B and M with a not so well off clientele has shelves full of seeds, peanuts, fat blocks, meal worms, and niger seeds for the goldfinches. It obviously sells.