Tuning up near you: The best concert ever

The sun came out today after a most unpromising start, which itself came after a run of very grey and drizzly days that - if I lived about 500 miles north of here - would most definitely have deserved the word 'dreich'.

That lifting of the gloom was enough to turn the garden into an instant jam of birdsong. It wasn't wall-to-wall, not yet, but the crescendo is underway.

The Robins were doing their watery short song verses, each one different, a mix of long notes and rippling cascades.

Then there were the Wrens, quivering with the effort, pumping out their high-speed volleys of song that almost always have the fastest of wooden rat-a-tat trills about two thirds of the way through. Instead of the Robin's two or three seconds of verse, the Wren can go on for four, five or even six.

Underneath all that was the Collared Dove's lethargic 'u-ni-ted, u-ni-ted', hardly an award-winner,. But I like to think it is like a tuba player in an orchestra - they don't tend to play the best melodies, either, but you need the base notes and rhythm sections to set off the main soloists.

Perhaps the happiest sound in the garden this year is the song of the Starling. Ok, so it is little more than a series of clicks and beeps and whizzes and plops, but last year they took to the nestboxes I've put up under the eaves for the first time; my orchestra has grown.

However, what is noticeable in my garden is that the Blackbirds haven't struck up into song yet. This happens every year, where I hear from friends who already have this Catherine Jenkins of the bird world belting out their fluty wondrous choruses, whereas mine often take until April to really get going.

But they will, and in a spring that is marked by such hideous news, I know I will turn again and again to these simple pleasures for comfort.

Excuse the advert, but as some of you will know, my RSPB Guide to Birdsong came out a couple of years ago, complete with CD and audio download, and I hear is giving readers/listeners the tips they need to identify birds by their songs and calls.

But what I'd really love you to tune into is a brand new podcast, out this week, in which I was interviewed by the wonderful Sarah Brown at The Organic Gardening Podcast, all about the wonders of birdsong.

I think you'll enjoy it. And you do get to hear plenty of birds, not just me!