BBC Special- Penrith

My neighbours have a tree that overlooks my yard, in which are resident birds- I think they're either robins or miners, I've never been able to spot them. Anyway I have noticed over the past few weeks that there is one bird in particular that has developed a special skill.

Spring is in the air, it's heating up, everything is blooming and growing, and one would expect that the birds would start to put out their mating calls.

This bird is classic. In amongst all the tweeting, I could hear a distinctive "tweet tweet tweet Tweeeet Tweeeeet tweet tweet tweet". Where had I heard this phrase before? It was a little riff that I had heard many times before, but I couldn't quite pinpoint it. Until it hit me.

If any of you out there are still rocking an old skool Nokia mobile, like the 3210, 5110, even 8210 or 8250- remember the message tone? This bird has learnt to imitate the extended message tone of the nokia.

You can hear it almost without fail on a daily basis. It always brings a smile to my day whenever I hear it. I hesitate to imagine the success rate this bird has with its new mating call.... I wonder what David Attenborough would make of this fascinating new natural phenomenon. The impact of humans on the natural world rears itself in yet another unusual way..