Be on song with bird calls

I WAS once billed as a bird expert on the radio, but they soon found out the truth when they played five birds singing and I only got one right.

- ALAN WRIGHT

I kept telling them that I wasn't an expert on birdsong but they just kept playing the songs. Getting the wren correct didn't help, it just encouraged them to keep up the torture.

There are many birds I recognise blackbird, wren, robin, great tit, curlew and cuckoo - but all that has come with familiarity as I have worked at the Lancashire Wildlife Trust for 11 years now.

Anyway, when I do get out with a real expert on birdsong, it is a treat and it again widens my knowledge.

I was wandering around Brockholes with Tim Birch of the Wildlife Trust Wales, and he kindly shared his knowledge of all the symphonies rattling around us on that brilliant nature reserve.