The migratory bird has been feted by everyone from Elvis to Shakespeare, but hunting, intensive farming and pollution have left it close to extinction in the UKUnder the torrential rain of a fickle British summer, 25 soggy pilgrims gather in front of the Plough, an ancient oak-beamed pub in the West Sussex village of Rusper. Above the drone of planes bringing travellers into Gatwick, the walkers - variously devotees of trekking, folk music or wildlife - raise their voices to sing an old English folk song that is told from the point of view of a globetrotting visitor to these shores: "Fare you well, my dear, I must be gone / And leave you for a while / If I roam away, I'll come back again / Though I roam 10,000 miles, my dear / Though I roam 10,000 miles."The song, The Turtle Dove, was discovered by Ralph Vaughan Williams when the Plough's publican sang it to him more than 100 years ago. It is a forgotten lament for a bird that has inspired writers, musicians and country-dwellers for centuries. This small, delicate wild dove, with grey feathers blushed pink and ginger, is a symbol of renewal in the Old Testament and an emblem of love and constancy for Shakespeare. The romance embodied by the turtle dove has fluttered into countless songs, from The Twelve Days of Christmas to Elvis Presley's Baby If You'll Give Me All Your Love and Cliff Richard's Bachelor Boy. But this celebrated bird is slipping towards extinction in Britain. Continue reading...
'We are silencing the natural world': can the turtle dove be saved?
3. srpna 2019 12:31
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Celý článek: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/03/silencing-natural-world-can-turtle-dove-be-saved
Zdroj: The Guardian