The Essay: A Birdsong Garden

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: A Birdsong Garden: Autumn Passage

Autumn Passage

A Birdsong Garden

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, A Birdsong Garden, Autumn Passage

Chiffchaff’s first words, and the swallows come... and go.

Sound recordist Geoff Sample reveals how nature can enrich our lives across the seasons. Autumn: Geoff's family appreciate the swallows as they come... and go once again. 

From the young chiffchaff taking its first words, to the cacophony of pheasants and mallards over the river, in autumn Geoff and his family begin to appreciate the annual visitors on their doorstep as the swallows come...and go once again. 

The lockdown through the spring of 2020 gave much space for reflection about life; and for wildlife sound recordist Geoff Sample an opportunity to review the five-year period spent in the remote and quiet Northumbrian home he sought out, to record and study the birdsong of a typical rural garden. 

This five-part series, ‘A Birdsong Garden’ is a mix of memoir, natural history, folklore, birdsong and spacious soundscapes. Geoff takes us through the four seasons of the year, considering how living close to and listening intently to nature can enrich our lives. 

Presenter and Producer: Geoff Sample
Executive Producer: Clare Freeman 
Commissioned for Culture in Quarantine, funded and supported by The Space Arts, BBC Arts and Arts Council England.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Geoff Sample takes us through the seasons, rediscovering how nature can enrich our lives.

A Birdsong Garden is a five-part series taking us through the four seasons, rediscovering how nature can enrich our lives. Presented by Geoff Sample.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Essay

A Birdsong Garden

Autumn Passage

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3