Week 7
I have an idea - a school for messy blackbirds[i]. I am sure it would be oversubscribed, as if there was an award for scruffiness and inconsideration, the blackbird would win top prize. That is even though the British Trust for Ornithology[ii] has awarded the blackbird a Medium Alert, as its numbers have fallen by more than a third since the 1970s, especially in rural areas. My land is a clear exception, as[iii]It has dozens of them, male and female alike. Blackbirds adore insects and earthworms, which they take from the ground by pecking, or they turn over leaf litter. My problem is that a blackbird never puts anything back, so my land looks chaotic and
untidy when the blackbirds have gone to town.
They also love moss, or what lies beneath it, so they peck away, lifting the moss to find insects, throwing it to one side, apart from the occasional strand of moss that they use to build their nest. The remainder they leave lying around. Stringy sphagnum moss[iv] is precisely what a blackbird seeks. The bird is also very inefficient and will fly huge distances with a tiny piece of moss, or twig, to fashion its nest. It will then fly back again for another scrap of moss, and so the day proceeds. Blackbird nests are untidy, as are the birds themselves, and are usually in hedges or bushes. Many of the nests end in failure - some say as many as 90%. Just like an untidy human, a blackbird does enjoy an occasional wash, if my pond is anything to go by.
Meanwhile, I am becoming increasingly worried by a song thrush[v] that normally sits near the very top of a beech tree at one end of my land. I see it each morning when I open my front door. It sings itself hoarse, as if it owns the place, which it probably does. Yet for the last few days the
thrush has gone missing, and with it its most wonderful song. I can see how it earned its name. Song thrush numbers are declining, too, so the bird is on the so-called Amber List[vi]. I suppose this is an improvement, as it was formerly on the Red List but amber still means a species is threatened with extinction. My only hope is that the song thrush has found itself a partner - spring is just around the corner - and will return in due course, but the area is filled with raptors. Song thrushes are known to be a common raptor delicacy, so I write with my fingers crossed that mine is not in a buzzard’s stomach somewhere nearby.
The trees have not truly sprung into life yet, and the many small oak seedlings scattered throughout my land remain leafless. Some will make it while others will not, although I have surrounded the seedlings with chicken wire as they are easy to miss and trample. At this time of year I cannot always tell what seedling is surrounded by which wire cage, as the leaves have
yet to appear. Before the leaves drop this autumn, I must be sure to label each seedling, so that I know which tree is what, once winter arrives.
Oaks are particularly slow-growing, and it can take five or six years for one to become self-sustaining[vii]. My seedlings are barely two years’ old at the moment and it can take many years, decades even, before an oak is fully grown. A 20-year-old oak can reach 60 feet tall if grown in full sun. Twenty years? That is well beyond my likely time. That said, only the good die young[viii], so with luck I might keep going.
My daffodils[ix] are seeming to take forever to appear. I saw the shoots weeks ago, but the flowers are taking much longer. Meanwhile the place is still littered with snowdrops. The lag between shoot appearance and flower seems far shorter for snowdrops than for daffodils. Mind you, if I look at the daffodil shoots, I am in for a stunning display any moment as there are so many shoots to see.
I am trying to become excited by wood pigeons[x] but have so far failed. There are two that perch on a wooden fence near my back door. From where I sit, the male is always on the right and the female on the left. It is difficult to say if she is giving him a hard time - there is plenty of beak clashing and feather ruffling - or they are in the middle of intensive pigeon courting. I suspect the latter. Wood pigeons[xi] also have an amber conservation status. Nothing seems to be escaping the environmental mayhem we are creating, not even wood pigeons. As best I can tell, wood pigeons eat everything. If I spread seed for flowers or grass, my first visitor is a wood pigeon. Breadcrumbs, wood pigeon. Worms, wood pigeon. Insects, wood pigeon. Next it will be steak and chips. Most of the wood pigeons on my land have been overfed by anything I spread, and waddle rather than walk. They look after each other, too. There is often a pigeon look-out perched high on my roof, or a nearby tree. The moment I behave suspiciously, the look-out takes off, followed by all other pigeons in the vicinity. Each flies off in the same direction. Wood pigeons are very territorial and fiercely defend their space.
Their call is easy to recognise and has five parts to it[xii]. “Coo-COOOOO-COOOOO-coo-coo”, it goes. I count when I hear it, to distinguish it from the doves that are less common but still nearby. A dove has only three parts to its call. Doves and pigeons are names often used interchangeably, belong to the same bird family (Columbidae), but are completely different and should be seen that way. The most famous pigeon in the world was Cher Ami[xiii], that saw service during World War One in France with the US Army’s Signals Corps. Pigeons are seen by many as a good omen - not by me - and are thought to be messengers of peace and love[xiv]. I must clearly try harder with wood pigeons.
Near the wood pigeons, as I looked out my window, were three lady pheasants[xv],[xvi]. They eyed me suspiciously and flapped off with a loud squawk the moment I drew near.
I find it sad that around 30 million pheasants[xvii] are released every year on shooting estates and killed just for the fun of a select portion of mankind. Mind you, pheasants are not perfect, as they are also nest parasites. This means they can use another bird’s nest for their young, which are then reared by this different species and can lead to pheasants behaving oddly, thanks to the environment in which they were brought up. There are plenty of moral stories that include pheasants, just as there are for wood pigeons. Try Aesop’s Fables and the story of The Fox and The Pheasants[xviii], the moral being that the harder you look for danger, the more likely you are to find it. But that is the story of life.
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Acknowledgement
Take it from me - none of this would be possible without the help of RSG Horticulture. Rufus, who runs it, has far more energy than me and is full of ideas and skills.
References [i] Turdus merula. Has an orange-yellow bill. The mature male is black, and the mature female is dark brown. Juveniles are reddish-brown. Albinism and leucism are common. Smooth, glossy eggs that are light blue with reddish-brown spots. Young are fed by both parents. Mostly resident throughout the year, although a few will overwinter in southern Europe. In our winter, many blackbirds migrate from Scandinavia and Northern Europe, often recognisable by their duller bills. [ii] https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/wetland-bird-survey/publications/webs-alerts. Accessed 12 February 2023 [iii] https://www.garden-birds.co.uk/birds/blackbird.html. Accessed 12 February 2023 [iv] Sphagnum flexuosum. Genus of approximately 380 species and sometimes known as bog moss or quacker moss. Plants can hold up to 26 times as much water as their dry weight. Eventually turns into peat. Disperses spores through the wind using the so-called “pop gun” method. Has been used as a wound dressing and as a soap for acne, ringworm, and eczema. As it is absorptive and extremely acidic, it inhibits growth of bacteria and fungi and is used for shipping seeds and live plants. Can also be an environmentally friendly alternative to chlorine in swimming pool sanitation. Was used in Finland to make bread during famines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphagnum. Accessed 12 February 2023 [v] Turdus philomelos. Nest is built entirely by the female, and is normally low down, even on the ground if well protected. The nest is neat and can take up to three weeks to complete. Once hatched, the fledglings are looked after by the male while the female prepares for the next nesting efforts. There are heavy losses at egg and chick stage with only 30% of nests producing young. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/song-thrush/. Accessed 12 February 2023 [vi] https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/uk-conservation-status-explained/. Accessed 12 February 2023 [vii] https://www.discoverwildlife.com/how-to/make-things/how-to-grow-oak-tree-from-acorn/. Accessed 12 February 2023 [viii] The origin of 'only the good die young' dates back to Greece, circa 445 BC. Cydippe, a priestess in the temple of goddess Hera, was to attend a festival in honour of the goddess. However, the oxen that were to carry her to the festival were not to be found and Cydippe sought the help of her young sons - Cleobis and Biton. Eager to help their mother, they yoked themselves to the cart and pulled it all the way (45 stadia; 8 km) to the festival. Impressed with their strength and devotion to her, Cydippe prayed to Hera to reward her young sons with the greatest gift that a celestial might give to a mortal. Her prayer was answered. Cleobis and Biton fell asleep in the temple and never woke up. Hera bestowed on them the gift of death. See https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/only-good-die-young-bellinda-dsouza/. Accessed 19 April 2023 [ix] Name comes from Middle English “affodil” (“ramson”), which is a spring-flowering bulb known as Narcissus pseudonarcissus. There are many subspecies of this wild daffodil, a perennial. It is the national flower of Wales. Bulbs, which can occasionally be confused with onions, and leaves should never be eaten as they contain the poison lycorine. This said, lycorine has promising antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects. Bulbs also contain galantamine, which the Welsh have shown is effective against Alzheimer’s. Seen from February to August. After blooming, do not remove their leaves for 6 weeks, to allow the bulb to absorb nutrients and grow for the next year. See 15 January 2023 [x] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_wood_pigeon. Accessed 12 February 2023 [xi] Columba palumbus. The UK’s commonest and largest pigeon, it is mainly grey but shows a white neck patch and white wing patches in flight. It has an impressive nuptial display when it cracks its wings and then glides downwards on stiff wings. Nests vulnerable to attack by crows. Typical lifespan is three years. Often mates for life. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/woodpigeon/. Accessed 12 February 2023 [xii] https://twootz.com/bird/Wood-Pigeon. Accessed 12 February 2023 [xiii] https://americanhistory.si.edu/press/releases/heroic-wwi-homing-pigeon-cher-ami-marks-smithsonian-centennial. Accessed 12 February 2023 [xiv] https://www.joyceelliott.com/pigeon-symbolism. Accessed 12 February 2023 [xv] Phasianus colchinus. The “colchinus” comes from Colchis, now Georgia, a country on the Black Sea. Native to Asia and parts of Europe, it has been widely introduced as a game bird. Nest solely on the ground in scrapes, frequently under a thick hedge. Naturalised in Great Britain around AD 1059. [xvi] https://www.inaturalist.org/guide_taxa/858933. Accessed 12 February 2023 [xvii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_pheasant. Accessed 12 February 2023 [xviii] https://5minutebedtime.com/aesops-fables/the-fox-and-the-pheasants/. Accessed 12 February 2023
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