Feisty robins making merry

SOUND OF SPEED DATING Red-breasted show-offs

- With STUART WINTER

Door-to-door carol singers are a fast-vanishing Christmas tradition in an age of inflatable Santas and mischievous elves on shelves. But listen carefully as the winter night descends and unassuming choristers will be filling the air with the sweet sounds of seasonal joy.

The song of the robin redbreast has inspired our greatest writers with its sibilant notes delivered across town and country at a time when nature is hushed.

John Clare, the so-called Peasant Poet, extolled the melancholy beauty of its voice in his 1820s work, the Autumn Robin:

"Sweet little bird in russet coat,