There's a note I hear in the poem that I'm not sure Bruce has pointed to directly: a sly background chuckle at the sometimes-odd similes and metaphors for birdsong used in bird books. I, at least, find it laughably strange that a bird expert would use the motion of a bowler to get at the sound of a chaffinch, and I think this poet does too. Lots of other descriptions in the birding handbooks have often struck me as odd. It's the "recall" of those "distinctive recipes" that is the poem's real subject, I think.
Perhaps I'm guilty of hearing my own prejudices. But I do think I recognize this poet's very distinctive voice.
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