Country diary: nature's sparklers sing brightly from beyond the bush

Sandy, Bedfordshire: Dunnocks are never centre stage, but their call suggests they want to be noticedIf songbirds were fireworks, then the dunnock would be a sparkler. It fills the lulls between the big bangs of the dawn chorus, and though its song fizzes with bright intensity, the fevered notes as high as the highest tune on a piccolo, and then some, it has a thin, faraway quality, as if it always came from the bush beyond. Prunella modularis is never centre stage, always whistling from the win