BirdNote; Shakespeare's Birthday

BirdNote®

Shakespeare's Birthday, April 23

Written by Frank Corrado

This is BirdNote.

Today we celebrate the birthday of William Shakespeare. “Why should we?” you may ask. Well, on the evidence provided in his plays and poems, Shakespeare was pretty well acquainted with birds. More than forty strut, twitter, shriek, sing, and soar through his works:

The Blackbird—the Bunting—the Buzzard—the Chough—the Cock (Rooster)—-Cormorant—Crow—Cuckoo—Dive Dapper—Dove (and Pigeon)—Duck (Mallard)—Eagle—Falcon (and Sparrowhawk)—Finch—Goose—Hedge Sparrow (Dunnock)—House Martin—Jackdaw—Jay—Kite—Lapwing—Lark—Loon—Magpie—Nightingale—Osprey—Ostrich—Owl—Parrot—Partridge—Peacock—Pelican—Pheasant—Quail—Raven—Robin (Redbreast)—Snipe—Sparrow—Starling—Swallow—Swan—Thrush—Turkey—Vulture—Wagtail—Woodcock—and Wren.

“There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow," says Hamlet towards the end of the play. "If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.”

For BirdNote, I'm Michael Stein.

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Song of the European Starling provided by The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Recorded by G.A. Keller.

BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Dominic Black

© 2015 Tune In to Nature.org April 2015 Narrator: Michael Stein / Frank Corrado

ID# 042307shakesKPLU shakespeare-01b