Madeleine Finlay
speaker
2,579 appearances
38 recordings
2 series
first heard Apr 2026
last heard today
Madeleine Finlay’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 38 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 8.
Appearances
Except in a lot of places today, the dawn chorus isn't very loud at all anymore.
Take the UK.
Since the 1970s, we've lost 73 million birds.
Species like the turtle dove, the nightingale and the cuckoo have suffered precipitous declines.
It's hard to remember or imagine what it was like before.
In fact, it's so difficult, the phenomenon has a name, shifting baseline syndrome.
The sights and sounds of a degraded natural world feel normal to us, and we forget how it used to be.
So, based on data provided by the British Trust for Ornithology, we decided to shift our baselines back and rebuild the dawn chorus.
this is what you might have heard 20 years ago if you'd opened your bedroom window at 4.30am.
Back in 1986.
And here's what could have been waking you up before the alarm clock in 1966.
What with habitat loss, pesticides, disease, cats and now the climate crisis, there are fewer birds around us than ever before.
But spotting them is growing ever more popular, especially among Gen Z. We want to reconnect back with nature.
This is a really nice way to do it.
So today, as birds continue to disappear, why is birding making a comeback?
From The Guardian, I'm Madeleine Finlay and this is Science Weekly.
Award-winning nature writer Robert McFarlane has recently published a new book with illustrator Jackie Morris, The Book of Birds, a compendium of 49 bird species under threat in Britain.
In its foreword, Rob writes about shifting baseline syndrome.
So when we sat down to chat, I asked him why he felt it was important.
And is it something that you personally reflect on in your own life?
Showing 1301–1320 of 2,579 · page 66 of 129
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