Bird Song

       Much has been written about bird song over the ages, and for many, including John Keats in his well known Ode to a Nightingale, the Nightingale has been accorded first place among the choristers of the avian world. It has been lauded by poets and writers as diverse as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Oscar Wilde and Alfred Lord Tennyson. And who can forget that memorable, and evocative song of World War II - A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square?
     Yet surely, the interpretation of song is subjective and personal. To my ears the song of the European Blackbird is more pleasing, with the added advantage that it can be heard during the day! Even the mood of the listener can bring a nuanced appreciation of song. 
     All of this brings me to the subject of my discussion today. It is a cool, dreary day here in southern Ontario, raining on and off, but I just heard a Northern Cardinal singing heartily, its clear, musical notes penetrating into the family room, an uplifting sound on a dismal morning.

     I am under no illusions that this is the most vaunted singer in the world. Its repertoire is quite limited, but always joyful, and when one first hears the outpouring of a hormonally charged male in spring, there is no sound quite like it for a Canadian anxious to bid farewell to winter. 
     It does not have the quality of 'immortal bird' as Keats described the Nightingale, but it does for me have an other-worldly character that does not readily submit to definition, but is real nonetheless. It brings joy, it envelops the listener, it is at once a portend of better days to come and a reunification with nature writ large.
     Nightingales are very agreeable in their place but a Northern Cardinal will do me just fine, thank you very much.