Melodious

I’m thinking back to a glorious summer in Italy, where I noticed a loud song coming from the bushes in Parco della Caffarella in Rome:

Lovely, isn’t it?

It’s a Melodious Warbler, Hippolais polyglotta, and it’s singing with the many tongues of its name. It’s a common breeding bird, here for the summer, and then off to West Africa, south of the Sahara for the Italian winter.

I’m spellbound by its song.

I love the head back, mouth open singing pose as it throws its song as far as possible across the fields and bushes.

I could spend all day with them.