Blackbird

 

Blackbird in Ballyannan Wood

Growing up in the States, when I heard Paul McCartney singing about a blackbird whose song was sweet and melodic in the night, I had no frame of reference. Blackbird was often given to the name of starlings, who can be destructive and a nuisance. Instead, this distinctive bird, which an orange ring around its eye and a matching bill, provides one of the most pleasant sounds one can hear walking through the woods or a neighborhood. I now understand the inspiration.