Swansong for the nightingale?

The National Nightingale Festival over the next six weeks provides a rare chance to hear the birds’ evocative call.

There are just 5,500 singing males left in the UK, raising concerns that their famous birdsong will disappear from England. Campaigners say the last bastion of the nightingale, at Lodge Hill in Kent, is under renewed threat as Medway council decides whether to build 5,000 homes there.

The festival’s events include RSPB guided walks to discover where nightingales are singing, including access to locations usually not open to the public. There are also musical nights inspired by and featuring the song of the nightingale.

Adrian Thomas, of the RSPB, said: “Nightingale song inspired poetry throughout the ages and provided the soundtrack to many summer sunsets. But this wonderful song might one day be lost from our countryside.” Samantha Herbert