Nightingale singing

In the north you don't see nightingales. I think I've seen about five in my life. For such a tiny bit of fluff they're loud and seem to concentrate so intently on their song they don’t see you creeping closer. They’re known for their beautiful song and it's no surprise their song is mentioned in hundreds of sonnets, poems and songs. If you look on Youtube you can listen to their song for hours. I’m sure nobody can feel worse after hearing them.

If you watch one of these birds sing they seem to use their whole body to chirp out a broad repertoire of noises from an empty yellow mouth. Pretty impressive for a bird that weighs less than a bag of sweets. I read that the part of the brain responsible for creating sound is much bigger than say skylarks or robins. Strangely the males sing throughout the night in the hope of tempting migrating females down as they fly over (females don't sing.) How many of these tiny things fly to West Africa to avoid British winter's is unknown. In Victorian times they used to be caught and caged but didn't live for very long.

I thought I'd try to paint one in oils. I'd ruined a painting and coated the canvas with white paint to start anew (you can still remnants of it on the sky area.) As usual I blocked in the tree, branch and nightingale with acrylic paints one night and got started with oils the following day. I used a knife to do the tree and bird and did the rest with a brush. The most difficult part was the yellow beak but I got lucky first time and didn't take the five attempts I'd expected. I left this painting in my bedroom one night but the aroma of paint and linseed oil was so strong I had to put it in the spare bedroom in the middle of night.

This one can be yours for £10,082. It would normally be £82 but I had to pay £10,000 for plastic surgery on my face. I sent a text to a female friend reading "I'm getting you Pringles tonight" but predictive text changed this "I'm getting you pregnant tonight" and when her husband saw it he came round and smashed my face in.

To hear a nightingale singing please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdlIbNrki5o