Emily Barker's video: Emily Barker - Where Have The Sparrows Gone Lyric video

From the new album "A Dark Murmuration of Words" - out now - https://smarturl.it/eb-words “Whatever it is, if it’s affecting the sparrows, is it doing us any good? I think of the miner’s canary.” Dr Denis Summers-Smith There are sparrows in the eaves above my bedroom window in Stroud, Gloucestershire. The window has a view above our tiny terrace garden and stretches out over one of the five valleys. In the mornings I enjoy sitting in the window bench seat, watching the sparrows dart from the eaves above me to the seed balls below. They are a common bird in this old part of town where the walls are made of Cotswold stone and the roofs of slate tiles – allowing for plenty of nesting places unlike newer, more sealed-up builds. The song title came from some words I saw on an environmental campaign poster. It called to mind an old folk song by Pete Seeger ‘Where Have all the Flowers Gone?’ but also got me wondering if, despite the abundance of sparrows in my own town, their numbers were actually diminishing. I looked into it and found that over the last few decades the sparrow has gone from being one of the world’s most common and widespread birds to being Red Listed as a species of high conservation concern – in the UK alone, numbers in rural areas have halved since the 1970s, whilst in towns and cities they have declined by 60%. My thoughts returned to the sparrows outside my window - how sad it would be to look out and not see and hear their vibrant movement and chatter. I hope that day never comes. 'Where Have The Sparrows Gone?' is set in an apocalyptic future London, where sparrows were once as common as pigeons, and follows a mother and daughter as they flee the capital, now devoid of sparrows and the trees that were once their home. ========================================= Stay in touch: Sign up to my newsletter: https://smarturl.it/eb-Newsletter https://emilybarker.com https://facebook.com/emilybarkerhalo https://twitter.com/emilybarkerhalo https://instagram.com/emilybarkerhalo Subscribe to this channel for more videos: https://smarturl.it/halo-youtube