SwN & Conservation
We take the welfare of the Nightingales and the land they depend on immensely seriously. The project is at its heart a conservation exercise and operates as an experiential means to create and invite renewed appreciation of an ecological niche under great threat.
NIGHTINGALE ECOLOGY
In this modern age, with biodiversity in decline and habitats being eroded, the Nightingale has become representative of all that we have to lose. The Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynches) is a small, brown, unremarkable-looking bird, but they possess one of nature’s finest singing voices.
The birds winter in Sub-Saharan Africa but spend April to July mating and nesting in Europe and as far east as Western Mongolia. Worldwide, the population is relatively stable but the numbers visiting England have declined so sharply that Nightingales are now on the UK’s Red List of species of the greatest conservation concern.
One of the most notable features of the Nightingale’s voice is the rich variety taking in mellow tones, flute-like sequences and a wide array of chatters, rattles, jugs and whistles. A truly accomplished singer may use up to 1,200 individual sounds each incorporated into around 250 vocal phrases.
PROTECTION OF THE Birds WE SING WITH
Nightingales are an increasingly rare bird in England with a declining population overall but a slight increase in their heartlands of Sussex, Kent and Essex. We are often asked about the potential impact of these events on the birds' ability to mate and procreate. Sam and the SWN have put a lot of work into researching this.
We have brought in our ornithologist and ‘environmental consultant’ Tom Stuart who has done regular work with us studying the impacts of the SWN events to assess the potential impact and whether our presence is in any way having a negative effect. Likewise, we have had several of the RSPB’s and BTO’s (British Trust for Ornithology) key staff participate in our events. They have all given SWN their full blessing stating that it is in every way respectful of the birds and their behaviour, with the likelihood of any such impact being minor to the point of negligible.
Harmonious Coexistence
We put in a great deal of effort to minimise our disturbance while the birds are singing and maximise the awareness for our audiences of their conservation needs both on our site and more generally. Singing With Nightingales would be self-defeating if the audience disturbed the Nightingales with our presence. After nine years, we can safely say that the majority of birds sing irrespective of the audience’s presence and our music-making. The birds’ reactions to our audiences are generally no different from their reactions to passing bird-watchers, casual walkers, families, traffic and industry. In confirmation of the bird’s safety of this project, the population on our Sussex site has been increasing every year.
The 45-60 minutes we spend in hushed silence near their sing-spot on a few nights is a fraction of the time they spend singing and would not, we have been expertly informed, interfere in a female’s search for a male. This is a long drawn-out process and is just as determined by the female's daytime inspection of the male's chosen territory.
We use no lights so it remains utterly dark throughout our visit, the music is unamplified and the Nightingale invariably sings louder and more emphatically with us there. Anecdotal feedback from the experts who have visited the events is that one unleashed dog with their walker on the same site poses so much more untold risk than our intimate group walking by and stopping silently.
Songs for Survival
It was supportively added by the NGOs who visited that the power of these artistic interventions to inspire and forge a renewed sense of respect and protection towards these birds and their environment is immeasurably important. The awareness-raising aspect found in this experience and the potential impact our audiences can have for good beyond their visit is far more positive than any negative effect we could have in the field.
The threat to Nightingales is not a violin or a singer's presence but being forgotten and subsequently, their habitat being lost, destroyed, developed, or overgrazed through human negligence and ‘alternative interest’. These are the more insipid threats that are currently compromising rare and vital habitats in several sites across the UK and threatening uncountable numbers of birds. SWN is working in collaboration with many institutions and local groups to draw attention to this situation and campaign for greater ecological justice in the UK and abroad.
NIGHTINGALE CONSERVATION WORK
SWN engages in annual conservation work on our site during the winter to help maintain the Nightingale's habitat which all previous participants are welcome to join us for. Please visit the Aftercare page for more information on these events.
SWN AND NATURE STEWARDSHIP
SWN believes firmly that we are part of nature and nature is part of us and the seperative ‘leave it alone’ attitude so readily defaulted to is one of the single largest contributors to the catastrophic ‘state of nature’ in the UK right now. As the most nature-depleted nation in the EU, it feels clear that this attitude has not worked. It has resulted in the loss of so many vital habitats through a generational legacy of separation, lack of engagement and weakening of environmental protection laws and the holding to account infringements on the few laws that do protect our habitat.
Through experiences like Singing with Nightingales, we can start to really bring nature back into our hearts. SWN aims to foster an ongoing inclusive, diverse and intergenerational practice of re-enchantment and nature adoration that we believe is vital if we are to bring about a change in our society and its leadership’s attitude towards making nature a priority.
HOW TO GET NIGHTINGALES ONTO YOUr LAND
There are two primary habitats that Nightingales love - blackthorn scrub and coppiced woodland, notably from between the 3rd and 9th year post-coppicing. The British Trust for Ornithology has published this very useful pamphlet to advise landowners on how to encourage Nightingales onto their land. However, even if Nightingales are not tempted this advice works to help increase many other magnificent bird species and their population size, and the ecosystem they depend on. If you have Nightingales on your land, we’d love to talk.