How I envy Jane Horne and her resident blackbird with a taste for musicals (Letters, July). Some years ago, I used to push my husband in his wheelchair along the road early each morning, and one of his great joys was to listen to our local blackbird whistling the last movement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. Sadly, my husband died a few years later, the blackbird has long gone, and the tree where it sang has been chopped down, but I remember them all whenever I hear the Beethoven concerto.
Frances Holloway
Harlesden, London

Many years ago in our Yorkshire back yard, a blackbird used to visit each day and sing the first four notes of a major scale. The following year it returned and sang the next three notes, and the year after it completed the scale. Was this just a random choice, or could it be connected to the fact that my husband was a musician, working from home?
Anna Crabtree
Lewes, East Sussex

My partner once went through phase of repeatedly whistling the Godfather theme. Our windows were always open. Something must have been keenly listening, because we heard a blackbird start to warble those distinctive first five notes and continue throughout the summer.
Ana Beard
Barnet, London

Years ago, when I was using a manual typewriter, working from home, I was amused to hear one of the local blackbirds reproducing the carriage return “ping” in his song.
Leslie Wilson
Reading

A local blackbird keeps insisting that it’s a Barbie girl.
Michael Haslam
Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire