Little Peckers

I love watching birds - local ordinary birds. I'll not go half way across the country to see a rarity, but I love birds. As such I have fed them in my garden, going so far as to put different seeds out to appeal to different birds, and even fruit on a little makeshift table. One thing I have never managed to succeed with is the window feeder. I have tried different windows and different seeds, all to no avail. That is until now. Living in farm surroundings attracts masses of birds, so I thought I'd give it one more try and it works - I have a front row seat for our wonderful garden birds! One thing confused me in that some of the birds would land on a different ledge to the food and start pecking the window. Apparently it is because they see their reflections and don't recognise themselves, so they peck at their enemy imposter in an effort to drive it away!

Please consider your equipment

As we all know this country can have four seasons in one day. This can be a pain, but it also keeps things interesting. If you're wandering in the town it's not much of a problem, the worst that's likely to happen is you forget your umbrella and turn up for work looking like a snowman or drowned rat. If you're venturing into the great outdoors, things get a bit more serious.

It's a lovely sunny day and you feel fit and ready for anything. Getting to the summit of that hill seems like a great idea, and I can relate to that - I love getting out. The trouble is you set off with equipment designed for the lovely sunshine. If that weather comes down when you're up, a long way up you could be in trouble. It might just rain and the worst that happens that day is you get soaked. If the fog comes in though, you could be in trouble. I was once told a story of a small group who set of up a mountain. Fortunately they had the right gear with them when the fog came down. They decided to sit it out because vision was down to where you could barely see your hand. They did the right thing. When the fog lifted they found that the way they were heading was a drop of several hundred feet.

If you haven't go the gear you are risking things like hypothermia and the problem with that is you don't feel it happening. As your body goes hypothermic you'll stop shivering and actually feel warm. Then you'll get lethargic and want to sit down. This might be the last time you sit because your body will close down. Please wear or carry the right gear. Learn to use a compass and map because an electronic device like a gps might just go down. If you can get on a specialist outdoor evacuation first aid course because you never know.

I'm not meaning to preach but I've spent so long as a ranger and seen so many people head off into the hills in t-shirts and flip flops that I have to say something. But more than anything enjoy your outings in the knowledge that you know what you're doing!

Packaging a very short rant!

My dad wanted a 10 amp fuse for his electricity meter, so we went to a nearby, well known electrical retailer. They didn't have one in stock so said they would post it. It took nearly a week and was wrapped in a plastic bag in an a4 envelope. Now I understand they would want to keep it safe, but is that really necessary?

Corvid Superstition

I thought this article I wrote for Birdwatching Might be interesting?

Corvidae – Myths and Superstitions

            A more obvious, noisy, garrulous and imposing group of birds in Britain, you are unlikely to find, than that of the Corvidae family. They make themselves known wherever they are, and though highly intelligent, have a wonderfully arrogant disregard for humans and their activities. As is the case with parts of the natural world that are either rare, or in this case, common, they have developed a case-load of myth and superstition. In referring to ‘they’ the prime species for investigation are the carrion crow (Corvus corone corone), the magpie (Pica pica), the jackdaw (Corvus monedula), the raven (Corvus corax), and the rook (Corvus frugilegis).

            The appearance of any of these birds is often taken to be portentous of something both momentous and miserable, and the name (crow) has become associated with anything, raucous, brooding, sinister, or simply coarse. The plant Crow Garlic (Allium vineale), is cruder than the real thing and a ‘crow-bar’ is a rough and unsophisticated tool.

            The magpie immediately attracts one’s attention with its pompous manner, bright colouring and harsh call. It is, though, quite a pretty bird, on closer inspection. It’s behaviour, like the others of the family has attracted a large amount of negative attention. There are many poems or rhymes about the bird, and they vary from one part of the country to another. The most popular is probably:

One for sorrow,

Two for joy,

Three for a wedding, four for a boy,

Five for silver, six for gold,

Seven for a secret ne’er be told.

            The rhymes tend to be quite kind and positive to the bird, though most people know that bad luck is associated with seeing a lone magpie. Another verse goes:

I saw eight magpies in a tree,

Two for you and six for me.

One for sorrow, two for mirth,

Three for a wedding, four for a birth.

Five for England, six for France,

Seven for a fiddler, eight for a dance.

 

            As there have been rhymes associating the magpie with ill omen, so there have been counter spells. It was thought that raising one’s hat or bowing to the bird would lift bad luck. Others believed that making the sign of the cross or reciting a rhyme would counter the bad luck:

I cross the magpie

The magpie crosses me

Bad luck to the magpie

And good luck to me

            Other defences against the bird were to spit in its direction and say “Devil, Devil, I defy thee”. Spotting a magpie that was flying away from the sun was considered especially ill luck and one would be required to shout “Bad luck to the bird that goes widdershins”. Less negative and the oldest recorded superstition, is that the sound of a chattering magpie foretells the coming of a stranger (quite likely as they often tend to chatter at people!)

            In contrast with the rest of the country, in Sussex it was considered good luck to have a magpie perch on your roof. This is based on the idea that the wise bird would not be foolish enough to alight on any unsound structure. So, any tree holding the nest of a magpie would never fall. Members of the crow family are undoubtedly intelligent if ill-regarded.

            The Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) is the smallest of the crows, and is found almost everywhere. According to a Norwich saying: “When three daws are seen on St Peter’s vane together, then we are sure to have bad weather,” something which must happen regularly, as the birds are very gregarious. This idea also holds at Wells, Croscombe, near Wells and Romsey in Hants.

            Having this species in the vicinity of one’s house does not seem to have been a positive omen. In Lancashire, it is thought that the perching of a jackdaw on the sill of a room, in which someone is ill, does not bode well. Also in the north of England it is considered bad luck on the owners of a home whose chimney a jackdaw flies down. As they are great builders of nests in chimneys, this makes a lot of unlucky home owners. Indeed, you are unlucky if a jackdaw nests in your chimney because its prodigious building is a nightmare to remove, even for the experienced chimney sweep. With this common habit, there is a belief in the north of England that having a jackdaw in the chimney presages death in the house.

            The thievish urges of the bird (often ascribed to the magpie) are also quite notorious, and have been for some time. In 1544 William Turner wrote that “it is by the Latins strictly named monedula as if it were monetula from the moneta (money) which alone of birds, as Pliny says, it steals”. He continues to tell us how “Ovid” describes the bird in the following lines:

 

Was changed into a bird, which even now loves gold

Monedula the black of foot, in plumage black arrayed.

 

            For all its associations with theft and death, the flesh of the jackdaw “fresh and warm”, was claimed to dissolve tumours, if held against them, and was also thought beneficial against Scrofula, or “King’s Evil” (a type of tuberculosis affecting the lymph glands, causing swelling). Its popular name derives from the belief that the touch of the monarch would cure it.

            Despite being part of the Corvid family, the rook has a relatively good press. It was considered lucky to have rooks nest on one’s estate. It is understandable then, that land-owners encouraged the birds to nest on their land. A late vicar of Morwenstow went so far as to make the invitation of the bird a special part of prayer within the service. It is unlucky, however, if rooks abandon their nests on the land, and may even foretell of the death of the heir.

            If a death did occur it was often held that the rooks on the land must be told of it. There is a large rookery at Round Green, in west Yorkshire and the birds in residence have long been believed to be the reincarnations of the Elmhirst family, who own the land, and have done so for many centuries.

            It is foretelling the weather that rooks are most commonly credited with. Should the bird remain close to home or fly low it tells that wind and rain will follow, while if it flies high and far away good weather will surely follow. “Tumbling” in flight is a sign of rain, as is returning from feeding early. If they feed hurriedly and facing in one direction, then one is warned to look out for a storm and if they line up on fences then prepare for wind.

            Like the other birds of the family, the crow has long been considered a bird of ill omen, or a “bird of death”; particularly to the Romans. Its ‘cawing’, especially near the house of someone who is ill, portends evil. While in other parts of Europe, if the bird alights on the roof of a house in which a recently deceased person is ‘resting’, then that, it is claimed, tells us that their soul is damned.

            In Sussex to hear it cry three times is to hear repeated warnings of death, while in the North country, children greet the crow with the words:

Crow, crow, get out of my sight,

Or else I’ll eat thy liver and lights.

            Another rhyme, much like those attached to the magpie is:

One’s unlucky

Two’s lucky;

Three is health;

Four is wealth;

Five is sickness;

And six is death.

            Once again a mixed message is given as to the nature of the bird; it may presage good or bad events, depending on numbers.  

            Scottish herds-men did not have mixed views on the birds; they used to make offerings to the hooded crow, eagle and other birds, that they may spare their flocks and there is a Morayshire saying that:

The Guil, the Gordon and the Hoodie Craw,

Were the three worst things Murray ever saw.

            Some believe that the crow does have virtues in the hand of a person, bestowing riches and honour. It is also credited with being capable of undoing human deeds. It is said to have knowledge of a special stone that will make its egg fertile again if it has been hard boiled. Whether boiled crow’s eggs are quite so popular now is open to debate!

            The raven is largest of the crow family by far, and possibly the most imposing. Because of its size, colouring and arrival on the battlefield, to feed on corpses, it has always been associated with foreboding and death. Strangely, however, its associations are not all negative; as we have seen so far, much depends upon the circumstances.

It was widely believed that their presence before an important event, such as a hunting or fishing trip, bestowed good luck on the venture. In the Highlands of Scotland it was thought that to hear a raven croak was a very positive omen when deer-stalking. In seventeenth-century Ireland, the sight of a raven with white on its wing (very unlikely), flying on one’s right-hand side, whilst croaking at the same time, was most definitely a sign of good fortune. To see such an event in itself is an event of good fortune!

Having said that, the majority of superstitions associated with the raven are negative; in Christopher Marlowe’s Jew of Malta the bird is unequivocally sinister:

...the sad, presaging raven that tolls

The sick man’s passport in her hollow beak

And in the shadow of the silent night

Doth shake contagion from her sable wings

           

One of the best known legends regarding ravens is that if they dessert the Tower of London then the fall of the country will soon follow. This is reminiscent of the rook forsaking her nest and the death of the land-owner. The ravens at the Tower were all killed during World War II and new ones brought in. They are now tamed and pinioned to prevent their escape, which gives an insight into the power bird superstition has over us even today.

Its powers in the past are perhaps a little more gruesome and strange. According to many old ‘Bestiaries’ and ‘Naturall Histories’ raven’s eggs roasted with nail clippings of a murderer were a certain cure for ague (fever). The origin of this particular belief is as obscure and bizarre as to be impossible to trace. Pliny claimed that “if women great with child chance to eat a raven’s egg, they shall be delivered of their children at the mouth.”

There are many such legends in which various parts of the birds or their eggs or chicks can bestow magical powers. However the overwhelming majority of superstitions attached to the raven are similar to those of the other corvids; it is an ill omen or a sign of death. This belief probably stems from the family’s food source and their congregation at that food source. Mix this with dark plumage and sinister calls and here is a family ripe for the attachment of death. But all carnivores thrive on death, most kill their prey themselves, and yet they are not the subject of such superstition. The crow family is an efficient ‘cleaner’ of the dead and sometimes a messenger of good intent.

agazine may be of interest.. I'll come back to put in some illustrations.

Out and about

I love the outdoors and all the adventure it has to offer, along with the tranquillity and beauty. I don't get out nearly as much as I'd like because of problems related to my hip replacement - I have a big steel bar in my right leg. The pain when I woke up was indescribable and was terrible for a long time. Now I'm having trouble with my knees. I've piled on weight through not being able to exercise and that's making my knees worse. BUT when I manage to get on my quad and go for a spin down to the river every problem drifts away as the engine burbles beneath me. I don't go fast; I want this feeling to go on for a long time, as long as possible.

So for all my problems I'm lucky enough to have a quad and a place to ride it! I've also got a dirtbike, but I'm a bit wobbly to ride that, which is a shame. What I'm saying is get out there while you have the chance and don't just march or cycle as fast as you can take in the nature notice the clear air as you breathe and keep your eyes open for any wildlife you might come across. I keep intending to write a piece on how to spot where an animal has been and where it goes, but that's for another time. We live on a beautiful planet, enjoying it is the greatest thing we can do and the more we enjoy it the more we'll share it and look after itself. Have fun out there!

Get out when you can

It seems that this is more time for sitting in the house watching the television where it's nice and warm. But take my advice and get out there - into the countryside and take your cameras! There truly are some beautiful colours to capture. In addition a lot of animals are buzzing about, as they get ready for the winter. I know every spare minute seems to be taken up with work, kids or Christmas shopping, but read my post about stress in the t-yourself blog. You really need to keep yourself under control, or you'll be no help to anybody, especially yourself.

You could start yourself a new hobby! Get yourself a sketch pad and some coloured pencils and start drawing some of those photos. Come Christmas time, you'll not be the one it's impossible to buy for! You'll have paints, pads and art books cascading around your house. One word or caution; I do believe anyone can learn to draw, but like anything else it takes practice and you have to find your favourite type of art. It can be extremely diverting and will give you much needed 'me time'

More Rambling

A university lecturer had once commented that my work was not scientific enough and that I ought to consider journalism. I had the time and the inclination to write about the kestrel. It is a favourite creature of mine – its adaptability and skills second to no other creature. So I set to work without any real clue where I was going, other than I really wanted the piece published in a favourite magazine; the Northumbrian. Unfortunately the periodical already had someone to cover birds, so my kestrel piece was not to see the light of publication just yet. The editor did show an interest in my planned hedgehog piece and it was to be my first published piece of work. But the kestrel still holds a special place in my heart. Although I am not aware of the kestrel being a bird of good omen, it is to me. When I see that hovering shape I can’t help but smile inside. This fascination almost ended in disaster when I was driving the head ranger’s van to the Cash and Carry. There was a kestrel hovering behind a hedge at head height and it took my attention from what I was doing at the time; driving. This is just one of the dangers of a fascination with wildlife.