15 Comments
User's avatar
Andrew Jones's avatar

I always think skylarks sound like they’re trying to connect to dial-up internet. (Not quite as poetic as Meredith.)

Expand full comment
Lyndsay Cedarwood's avatar

At a music festival I went to in the Oxfordshire countryside, in the early hours of the morning, I lay in my tent laughing to hear my neighbours raving along with the skylarks, by singing Josh Wink's Higher State of Consciousness. I think of it every time I hear one.

Expand full comment
Charlie, from Birdsong Academy's avatar

I love this!

Kind of like a bucolic version of the kitchen rave scene from Spaced https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfSndZPynQk

Expand full comment
Lyndsay Cedarwood's avatar

Yes! Oh Spaced. Daisy's "I got sacked" montage has always stayed with me too 😅

Expand full comment
Michael Kibedi's avatar

I usually listen to each episode early in the morning. The soothing dulcet notes, the mellifluous tones. Never had it on my cards that Josh Wink would make an appearance. Now I heard it, I can’t unhear it!!

Expand full comment
Holly Starley's avatar

Haha! You’re not wrong about the minor neck injuries. I was scouring the sky, head thrown back, just recently chuckling over the prospect of incurring injury thusly (though for a flock of geese I couldn’t see beyond the night clouds).

Thanks for another lovely post.

Expand full comment
Sam Gamblin's avatar

Such a delightful listen Charlie - thank you! I had skylark song playing during my wedding as so many happy memories of neck craning walks with my husband 💚

Expand full comment
Charlie, from Birdsong Academy's avatar

Thank you Sam. Skylark: ultimate celebrant!

Expand full comment
Emily Charlotte Powell's avatar

To the amazement of my teachers, I correctly identified the song of a skylark from a recording when I was around 8. When we walked across the fields, mum would stop and draw our attention to their song and tell us how they would sing as they lifted into the air and play Vaughn Williams (and other beautiful music) at home one of my absolute favourite birds

Expand full comment
Janelle Hardacre's avatar

"An individual skylark may even continue to sing as they are pursued by a falcon, seemingly in a display of strength." - Wow, I found this little nugget really quite moving.

Thank you, Charlie!

Expand full comment
Mark Everest's avatar

I’d always associated Skylarks with open heathland and didn’t realised how much more widespread they actually are. Thanks for the insight as always Charlie.

Expand full comment
Aria Vink's avatar

Sounds like a very busy bird! Love it!

Expand full comment
Tracey's avatar

I adore the glorious sound of these birds. It always takes me back to childhood days spent on Exmoor. I can still hear them at my local honey farm

Expand full comment
Ruth Bradshaw's avatar

Thank you! I love skylarks. Their song always reminds of country walks in summer time. Interesting to learn about them even continuing to sing when being chased by a falcon.

Expand full comment
Juliet Wilson's avatar

I'm always happy to hear Skylarks along the John Muir Walkway near Musselburgh, relieved that they're still there. Also they've recently started singing in the fields of Edinburgh's Agro-ecology project which started up a couple of years ago at Lauriston Farm. https://www.lauristonfarm.scot/

Expand full comment