Episode description

The exhibition Animals: Art, Science and Sound at the British Library (until 28 August 2023) reveals how animals have been documented across the world through history. Cheryl Tipp, Curator of Wildlife and Environmental Sound, explores how people have tried to capture bird song – from using musical notation in the 17th century to the first commercial recording three centuries later, and the recording of the last Kauaʻi ʻōʻō songbird in Haiwaii.

Swifts are summer migrants, flying thousands of miles, only pausing to breed in Europe. Their screeching cries and darting flight might be the sight and sound of summer evenings, and yet we know relatively little about their lives. In One Midsummer’s Day the naturalist Mark Cocker goes in search of the elusive swift, and finds a whole natural world of connections.

The ecologist Tim Blackburn also discovers the hidden rules and interconnectedness of nature in his study of moths. His book, The Jewel Box, celebrates the diversity he finds within the moth trap on the roof of his flat. But also exposes a glimpse of a larger landscape, beyond the world of lepidoptera.

Producer: Katy Hickman