Ducklings

 

Ducklings

Photos courtesy  of Wikimedia Commons

For some reason I cannot fathom, I cannot access my own photos!

It is the season for young things of all shapes and sizes.

There was a nursery class, now called ‘pre-school’, attached to the last school I worked at, with its own small self-contained garden. It was a comfortable, welcoming environment for young children.

One day there was great excitement when a Mallard duck was discovered nesting among the angelica plants. The nursery staff ensured that she was carefully protected from the enthusiastic advances of curious small children, with an oft-repeated reminder to look with eyes only and not with fingers. The children responded beautifully and looked each day to count the ever-growing number of eggs.

One day came the thrilling news that the eggs had hatched. I forget how many there were, at least 12, I think. When the last one had dried out after hatching, Mother Duck gathered her brood and began the long journey to the nearest water. To do this, she had to cross the playground, exit through the school gate and make her way across uncultivated ground to water.

I glanced out of my classroom window to see Richard, the school caretaker, attempting to marshal Mrs Duck and her family. The playground was uneven and had drains at intervals, with holes in the grating big enough for ducklings to fall through with no easy way to rescue them. I told my class of nine-year-olds about the potential danger the ducklings faced as they travelled from their nest and we all went out to help. The children were very sensible and quiet and together we herded the ducklings away from the danger points and towards the gate.

Unfortunately, we could not follow them out of the school, so went back into the classroom, feeling we had done our best. We never found out how the ducklings fared, or how many survived, if indeed they did, but shepherding them made a very different and pleasant interlude in an otherwise normal school day.

The school had been built on rough common land only a few years previously. It was in a semi-rural location, in a dip that was said to flood every fifty years or so, so water was never a great distance away, unless you were a day-old duckling.

I was surprised one morning when I was walking along the corridor to my classroom, to find a newt struggling across the carpeted ridges. I found a transparent container and put her (I decided it was a female) in it with some greenery and kept her on my desk for the day. She was a source of great interest to the children.

When I left for the day, I took her home. With hindsight, I should have released her in the grounds outside the school, but I took her with me and put her in our garden pond where she disappeared into the depths. The reason I thought she was a female was that fairly soon we had more than one smooth newt, where before there had been none - or perhaps there were and I had never seen them.

When I told my neighbour about our newt, he said he had a newt and that he called it Tiny. He had to prompt me to ask why he’d given it that name – honestly, I’m so serious gullible sometimes that I wonder how I’ve made it this far in life. Anyway, I duly asked, ‘Why do you call it Tiny?’ and he said, ‘Because it’s my newt.’

On another day, I looked out of the classroom window to see six green woodpeckers on the field. We stopped what we were doing and had an impromptu nature lesson. The woodpeckers remained on the grass, digging for insects, for about twenty minutes. It was a joy to see so many together.

I remember these occasions vividly. I wonder if ‘my’ children do. At the very least I hope they discovered some pleasure in seeing Nature at first hand.

A to Z challenge 22023 - G is for . . .

 

A to Z challenge 2023 – G is for . . .

My theme for this challenge is Nature in all much of her wonderful diversity. My posts will reflect the fact that I am resident in the south of England.

All photographs in this post are the property of the writer, with the exception of the one about Shel Silverstein

 Great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

Of all the birds that visit my garden, the great spotted woodpecker is one of my favourites and I am always elated to see, or more likely hear one. They are native to the UK and are common in England and Wales. They are not found in the far north of Scotland and there are only a few pairs nesting in Ireland, though numbers are increasing.

This photograph show a juvenile with its red cap. The cap disappears in adults, with the male developing a scarlet flash and red being absent from the female's head

Spring is the time of year when the loud drumming of this bird can be heard. Both males and females make their presence known and defend their territory by rapidly hammering their bills against dead tree trunks. The sound can be heard over long distances and is effectively their song, although they do also have an unremarkable call of a screech and a falling whistling note.

The male has a scarlet flash on the back of its head and juveniles have red caps. Males and females both have red rumps. It is a striking bird – in more senses than one! – and is about 22 to 23 cms in length, so slightly smaller than a blackbird.

The birds feed on insects, worms, snails, tree seeds, eggs and young birds and are also regular visitors to garden bird feeders.

Scientists have studied the shock-absorbing skulls of these birds in an endeavour to develop more effective protective headgear for humans.

A Polish legend explains how the woodpecker got the scarlet flash on his head.

God and the devil had a competition to plough their fields. God had a woodpecker and the devil used a horse, which was much more effective. God secretly borrowed the horse overnight and ploughed his entire field. The next day, the devil saw the field and was persuaded that the woodpecker had done it, so he asked God to swap the horse and the bird. He soon discovered that the woodpecker could not plough and in his anger at being tricked, he hit the woodpecker’s head, which bled, leaving a red mark.

 

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) wrote a short verse about the woodpecker.

‘His bill an auger is,

His head, a cap and frill.

He laboreth at every tree,-

A worm his utmost goal’

 

Shel Silverstein (1930 – 1999) took a more light-hearted approach. ‘Peckin’’ comes from his book, ‘A light in the Attic’, which was dedicated to his daughter, who died of a cerebral aneurysm when she was 11.)

 

Green woodpecker (Picus viridis)

The Green woodpecker is also one of my favourite birds and is the UK’s largest woodpecker. Called the Yaffle, after its chuckling flight call, the Green woodpecker is very much shyer than the Great spotted woodpecker and is more often heard than seen. It has a short-tailed green body, a brilliant yellow rump and a bright red crown.

Green woodpeckers spend most of their time feeding on the ground, probing the soil for ants. They live and breed in all areas of the UK, apart from Ireland and the far north and west of Scotland. (Ireland and the north of Scotland seem to miss out quite a lot, really!)

This image has been cropped from a much larger photograph of a green woodpecker in a very tall oak tree

Other folk names for the Yaffle include laughing Betsey, yaffingale, and nicker pecker. It’s also known as the rain-bird, weather cock or wet bird, because it is thought to have the ability to summon rain, or maybe it just foretells it, along with seaweed.

Both woodpeckers have extremely long tongues, which they use to catch insects. The green woodpecker’s tongue is about 10 cms long, one third of its body length, another fact to ponder.

(Suppose humans had tongues of comparable ratio? Garrulous people would be tripping over their tongues all the time, even stepping on them. Would biting one’s own tongue be more or less painful if there were yards of it? And how would the taste buds be distributed? So many questions, too few answers.)

  When the woodpecker’s tongue is not is use it is coiled around its skull, wrapped around its brain. (That thought makes me feel quite queasy.)

In the great spotted woodpecker’s case, the coiled tongue provides a buffer to protect the brain against concussion during the speedy pecking required for drumming. The Green woodpecker doesn’t drum with the same ferocity or frequency as the Great spotted woodpecker.

My second G is for Gossamer.

Orb web spun by common garden  or cross spider

Gossamer is the fine silk produced by spiders. All spiders produce silk but the silk can be used in many different ways. Most spiders vary the viscosity of their silk according to how it is to be used. Same use it in orb webs to capture prey, while others wrap their victims in the fine filaments, often having first immobilised them with venom. Some male spiders produce sperm webs in which the eggs are covered in silken cocoons.

                Spiderlings almost ready to sail away on a gentle breeze

On a sunny day in summer spiderlings can be seen floating through the warm air on strands of gossamer, being dispersed far and wide. This is known as ‘ballooning’ or ‘kiting’.

For some spiders, the webs of others are a source of sustenance. Parasitic spiders live on the webs of orb spinners and feed on the insects captured there. Some spiders build webs daily and consume the damaged remains at the end of the day.

Others use a single skein of silk as an emergency line when they fall, or as a trail to find their way home again.

Charlotte Smith (1749-1806) was an English poet and novelist. While incarcerated in Debtor’s Prison in 1783, she wrote ’Elegiac Sonnets’.

 

 Sonnet LXIII is called ‘The Gossamer’.

‘O’er faded heath-flowers spun, or thorny furze,

The filmy Gossamer is lightly spread;

Waving in every sighing air that stirs,

As Fairy fingers had entwined the thread:

A thousand trembling orbs of lucid dew

Spangle the texture of the fairy loom,

As if soft Sylphs, lamenting as they flew,

Had wept departed Summer’s transient bloom:

But the wind rises, and the turf receives

The glittering web:- So, evanescent, fade

Bright views that Youth with sanguine heart believes:

So vanish schemes of bliss, by Fancy made;

Which, fragile as the fleeting dews of morn,

Leave but the wither’d heath, and barren thorn!

 

The best time of day to see gossamer is early morning before the world is awake.

 

G is also for Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) another little bird to bring joy in its wake, and a bird that uses spider silk to help bind its nest.

It is native to the British Isles, except in the most mountainous parts of Scotland, and has been introduced to other countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

Carduelis is the Latin word for goldfinch. The English word was used by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14^th century in his unfinished ‘The Cook’s Tale’

‘Gaillard he was as goldfynch in the shawe’

(Gaily dressed he was as is a goldfinch in the woods)

Although I dislike clowns, Goldfinches always remind me of them, with their brightly-coloured heads, but the less alarming, less grotesque clowns. They gather together in small flocks, called a charm, although in the cold of winter they may gather in flocks of around 100, and some may migrate to Spain to avoid the worst of the weather.

The goldfinch has a slender pointed beak well adapted to extricate seed from thistles and teasels, although they feed their young on insects in the spring and summer.

Historically, goldfinches were kept as caged songbirds and are often represented in Italian Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child.

ABC Wednesday W is for . . .

‘Warm Welcome’

Rosa ‘Warm Welcome’ is a semi-evergreen climbing rose that flowers profusely in summer and autumn. The clusters of flowers are sweetly scented and a vibrant orange-red, a welcome splash of brightness on our often less than sunny summer days.

White starling

Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are on the RSPB Red list. This means that they are globally threatened. They are abundant in Berkshire and frequent our bird feeders with noisy enthusiasm. A few years ago I spotted a pure white starling. Not quite believing my eyes I took some hasty photographs and though I watched and waited for several days I never saw it again.

Woodpecker – of the three UK woodpeckers, two can be seen in gardens. The Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major) is the commoner visitor to our garden. It is a striking bird and vies with the starlings for a place at the table. It eats insects and fruit.

The Green Woodpecker (Picus viridis) is the largest of the woodpeckers that breed in Britain. It eats insects and has a particular liking for ants. It is popularly called the Yaffle because of its laughing call. It is on the RSPB Amber list, meaning that its status is causing concern.

The bird at the front is a juvenile. The white neck patches will develop later.

The Wood pigeon (Columba palumbus) is Britain’s largest pigeon. It is the major agricultural pest and a favourite species for sport shooting. However, I am not a farmer and am always pleased to see these heavyweights in the garden. Their repetitive soft cooing call is a reassuring sound that all is well in the bird kingdom.

The Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) is the UK’s commonest breeding bird. Like other small birds it suffers a decline in numbers in cold weather. It is often to be seen creeping mouse-like round plant pots, seeking the insects and spiders that form its diet.

To see other Ws please click here.

ABC Wednesday G in my Garden

In spring we have grape hyacinths (muscari) in the garden. This year we grew them in window boxes. 

This one was still developing its colour.

 We see Green woodpeckers (Picus viridis) occasionally in the garden but they are more often heard than seen

Greater spotted woodpeckers (Dendrocopos major) come frequently to the feeders and bring their young along, too.

Grey herons (Ardea cinerea) sometimes come to fish from our pond. They are very wary and we have never managed to photograph them in the garden. Barry took this photo at a local nature reserve.

We have perennial geraniums, often called cranesbill because the seed pods are said to resemble a crane's bill, in blue  . . .

 . . .and pink. 

Click here to see more Gs from around the world

ABC Wednesday Y

Y is for Yachts and Yachting

Yaffle is an old country name for the Green Woodpecker(Picus viridis) Yaffles sometimes visit our garden but it is more common to see Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Dendrocopus major) on our feeders.

Yellow is the colour commonly used in safety clothing.

Yellow pansies in summer

Fragrant yellow honeysuckle attracts insects.

Thank you to the ABC team for organising and hosting this entertaining meme. To see what others have chosen please click here.