Bird list

My wife, Paula, wrote this fine set of words last year. It's a litany of bird names from the red and amber lists of birds that are endangered in the UK. It took a while for me to come up with a tune that we both liked. She wanted a driving, chanty sort of thing and I rather liked a measured hymn sort of thing - so in the end, I used two which we both like now. :) Baritone guitar in standard tuning (i.e. B to b). (Made by me as a one-off in 2019.) Bird list Year on year bird numbers tumble Dipper, curlew, grey wagtail Bullfinch, sparrow, starling, song thrush Pied flycatcher, nightingale Our fathers heard the sweet birds sing In ev’ry tree, on ev’ry bough In the fields, on the farmland Thousands following the plough Creatures flourished in the country Sparrows in the city street Change came swiftly, change was brutal March of time on heavy feet Decades of intensive farming Leaves soil lifeless in its wake Starved of food, deprived of shelter Yellow hammer, quail, corncrake Clearing hedgerows, woods and wetland Building roads and HS2 Nesting sites are gone forever Woodcock, warbler, ruff, cuckoo Songbirds slaughtered by the million All for sport the hunters love Trapped in nets while on migration Finches, buntings, turtle dove Poisoning and shooting raptors Privilege and money talk Slaying foes of grouse and pheasant Harrier, kestrel, sparrowhawk Listed status counts for nothing Deemed an aviation hazard Planes need empty skies to fly in Skylark, pipit, linnet, buzzard Those in power make decisions When to save and when to cull Licensing to curb a nuisance Raven, moorhen, herring gull Puffin, fulmar, black-tailed godwit Merlin, tawny owl, mute swan Whinchat, whimbrel, lapwing, redwing Bird list - going, going … going, gone Paula Bolton - 2019