A to Z challenge 2023 - D is for . . .

 

A to Z challenge 2023 – D 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

Daffodils

The Latin name for daffodil is Narcissus. Narcissus was a beautiful young man. When he caught sight of his reflection in a pool of water, he became so bewitched by his own beauty that he fell in love with his image. He could not tear his gaze away and faded away into death. He was then turned into a flower, the daffodil we know today in its many forms.

The daffodil is one of the first perennials to flower in Spring and as such is a symbol of rebirth and hope. Daffodils were introduced to England by the Romans who thought that the sap had healing powers.

In England, it is known as the Lent or Lenten lily, because it blooms between Ash Wednesday and Easter. It is also the symbol of the Marie Curie cancer charity and is worn throughout March as a sign of support.

It is the national flower of Wales, and is proudly worn at public events, along with the leek, which predates it by thousands of years!

Victorians called daffodils the flower of respect and friendship and they are a traditional gift for tenth wedding anniversaries. Florists often add them to bouquets as a symbol of faith and happiness. Once upon a time, however, giving someone a single daffodil was seen as bad luck, and a drooping daffodil signalled death. (Not much hope in my garden, then, as the dogs gallop around, ‘bending’ many a bloom!)

D is also for Dunnock (Prunella modularis)

Dunnocks are small, unobtrusive grey and brown birds. The name dunnock comes from the English ‘dun’ meaning dingy brown or dark-coloured and ‘ock’ meaning small.

They are often seen alone or with one other on the ground near hedges and low-growing shrubs, unlike house sparrows, which live in flocks. They are known as Hedge sparrows because of a passing resemblance to female house sparrows, but their bills are quite distinct, the sparrow’s beak being broader, for cracking seeds, and the dunnock’s thin and pointed and more suited to plucking insects from leaves and twigs.

They are very common throughout the UK in areas of plentiful vegetation. They have a characteristic habit of flicking their wings, particularly in territorial disputes, and for this reason are commonly called ‘shufflewings’. Numbers have dropped by almost a third in the last fifty years and the birds are now on the amber list of conservation concern.

They eat insects, spiders, worms and some seeds.

Dunnocks can copulate more than 100 times a day. The female dunnock will mate with several males, meaning that chicks within the same brood may have different fathers. Sometimes two males she has mated with will work together to protect a territory against rivals and help her to raise her young.

Chicks may be raised by a single female, or by many females with the help of a male, or by many females and males together. Although males are not thought to discriminate between the chicks in a brood, they invest more time in feeding the young if they have had access to the female and may therefore have impregnated her.

Their nests are built low down in a bush or conifer and are constructed of twigs and moss and lined with feathers or other soft material. The eggs, laid in clutches of three to five, are blue.

The nests are often targeted by cuckoos.

Although they appear quite plain, a closer inspection reveals intricate feather patterns. It is always a pleasure to see these little birds at home in my garden.

My final D is for Deer.

The deer in our local woodlands are Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus). They are one of the two truly native deer of the British Isles, though they are not found in Ireland. The other native deer are the red deer.

Their colouring enables them to blend into the environment. There are two in this photograph.

‘Bambi’, Felix Salten’s book (1928), was originally about the life of a roe deer.

Roe deer are about 75 cm tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 25 kg. Their natural lifespan in the wild averages 10 years. 

Their coat colour varies from rusty red in the summer to slate grey in the winter and both doe and buck have a white rump. The doe’s white rump is heart-shaped and the buck’s is shaped like a kidney. 

Young buck

Roebucks have three-pointed antlers when they are fully adult and unlike other deer, begin to regrow them almost immediately after shedding them. Their main diet is grass, leaves, berries and the shoots of young trees.

The breeding season or ‘rut’ is from mid-July to August, when bucks battle for the right to mate with a receptive doe. Roe deer delay the implantation of a fertilised egg until January to avoid giving birth in harsh winter conditions when food is scarce, so although gestation is 9 months, the first four months see no growth followed by five months of developing embryo. The does give birth to two or three kids in May or June, but many perish shortly after birth, often due to predation, or during the cold of their first winter.

They are wary and ready to flee at the slightest hint of danger

The best times to see them are around dawn and dusk when they are feeding. Daytime is spent hidden from view, ruminating.

Most ruminants have stomachs with four chambers. These allow the animals to digest food without completely chewing it first. Some is brought back up to be chewed again and this is called chewing the cud, commonly observed in cattle.

They are graceful creatures, able to bound effortlessly over fences and hedges. It is incredible to see them apparently ‘melt’ into the landscape.