Bird Song Is the Soul of the Earth
Set to music we all can hear
“Trees, trees, murmuring trees”
“Cheerily, cheerily, cheerily, cheer”
“Oh Sweet Canada, Canada, Canada!”
Are these lines of poetry?
Coded messages from an evocative dream?
Lyrics from a beloved children’s lullaby?
The answer is: none of the above. Yet these “words”, sung by the Eastern meadowlark, Black-throated Green warbler, American robin, and White-throated sparrow, respectively, do seem to evoke a poetic, lyrical, almost dreamlike state. Especially when we hear them outdoors on a warm, cloudless day.
Of course, we need to use our imagination to actually hear these words and phrases in bird song. That is why many birders use mnemonic devises to help keep the songs better fixed in their memories.
Because all people are different, one person will hear one thing and another person something else, as they come up with their own memory prompts. For example, many people hear in the American goldfinch’s call the phrase “potato chip, potato chip, potato chip.” But to me it always sounds as if the goldfinch is saying “persnickety, persnickety, persnickety”.
