The first bird I spoke to was a Robin.

It was in our garden in Nottingham, as a distraction from revising for exams, where I tried to whistle back the song of the resident red-breast.

Now it goes without saying that a Nottingham Robin speaks whatever the equivalent is of The Queen’s English in the Robin world. Robins come from Nottingham!

And that’s the Robinish that I was first familiar with.

But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Robins, like humans, talk differently in different places. I was listening to a local songbird calling not long ago, here in Campbeltown, and I didn’t recognise the song until I saw the bird. Yep, it was a Robin.

How wonderful is that? Robin’s have dialects.

I love it when someone sings a cover song in their own style.