Country diary: two scratchy fiddles are music to the ears

Sandy, Bedfordshire: The sedge warblers want to be seen and heard, but the grasshopper warbler cannot be pinned downA great tit has crowned the lime trees outside our house for three months or more, with its steady, seesaw song, rendered mnemonically and memorably as "tea-cher, tea-cher". Over that period the bird has become - to some ears at least - a bare-branched bore.In the unfurling of May, its song became more sporadic - but in addition, a new voice had arrived, one that was even more repetitive, yet anything but monotonous. Obsessed and addicted, I hurried down to the riverside meadow, lured to listen for the eighth time within a fortnight. Continue reading...