Letters to the Editor - September 2007

Our most intelligent bird?

I read recently that the crow or rook heads the list of the most intelligent of birds. At the bottom of our back garden is a tall tree where a couple of crows have built a nest over quite a number of years. They come down looking for some food and will tread on larger pieces so as to peck away at them. However, this year I have noticed that one of them will drop pieces of hard bread into the fish pond so as to soften them up, then retrieve them so as to fill its beak to overfilling.

I guess in doing this, it has noticed fish in the pond, and the other day a small goldfish was seen to fly through the air. Yes! Our crow friend had managed to peck and fling it out of the water and onto the ground. No doubt quite a tasty dish for the pair of them. I have built a net over the pond so as to distract the crow and I see it now uses a birdbath to soften the bread in. They seem to be quite a devoted couple and have produced at least three offspring over the years. They appear to share the duties in keeping the eggs warm and call quite often to each other when separated.

Ted Childs, Dorchester

Kiss on the fence

We have all heard of the ubiquitous robin and its territorial propensities which can lead to some vicious fights between males in particular. In past years I’ve seen that in-fighting in our garden which appears to be the boundary for a couple of families of these otherwise friendly birds.We have some fairly sturdy fences which withstood recent high winds and some of the supports are ivy clad which affords a host of nesting possibilities for the robins and other birds.

But this year something has changed. We appear to have not two but three robins and their wives who at the same or different times make a beeline for our bird table and its fine wares of seeds, fat balls and otherwise mouldy bread remnants. That small table regularly attracts all manner of birds. One would think that these three robins would be constantly fighting one another for territorial gain but there appears to have been a truce arranged. As I sit here looking out on the garden I can see two of them taking turns to go to the table and flying swiftly back to the garden fence to demolish either a peanut or one of the many seeds on offer. On occasion, the two males are on the table at the same time but their concern is clearly not one another but their stomachs!

Perhaps they are from the same family but this morning as I sipped a warming cuppa and watched them taking their early morning breakfast, something I had never before experience happened. One of them came to the fence and then the table and took a seed which it then proceeded to scoff. It stayed on the fence preening its feather just as the second robin moved to the table. It took some of the breadcrumbs I had left the previous night but instead of flying off in a different direction to the other robin went straight for it on the fence, I thought that this might be the precursor for the other robin to fly off immediately to prevent a squabble, but no, the robin stayed there. The other robin alighted next to it and, remarkably, the two touched beaks in as friendly a gesture as I have ever seen. Then the one with the food still in its beak went to the next fence along to finish off its feast.

Before readers think that this was simply one robin helping to feed the other, the two are fully grown males and one was not a recent fledgling. I can only think they are brothers and actually recognise the other as such. Perhaps the third one we sometimes see is also part of the same extended family but, whatever the situation, it was a magic moment that makes it worth while to have a garden table.

John Baxter, Shrewsbury

Wondrous wasps’ water ‘trick’

I was completely bowled over by David Howard’s wondrous description of wasps obtaining water to build their nests. I have been aware of the meniscus disc ever since I can remember – that mysterious ability to ‘overfill’ a bowl of water, but never imagined the privilege of being able to re-read such a detailed account, each time grasping a tiny bit more. I shall always remember the hot sunny afternoon many years ago when, sitting beside a weathered wooden fence panel, I became aware of a clear and persistent scratching sound near my ear and saw a wasp removing the top layer for her nest, the ‘new’ wood clearly visible underneath. I’m now wondering in which order they gather the materials, and exactly how they mix them. What a truly astonishing world we live in.

Zoë Bradshaw, Okehampton, Devon

Demented magpie dances for his meal

Just off the A470 on the back road to Builth Wells from Newbridge on Wye is an area of waste land known as the ‘bog’ which is in fact a nature conservancy created by the Hereford and Radnor Trust. It is a heavily wooded area, full of interesting wildlife including all manner of birds, rabbits, hares, ducks and every type of pond life imaginable. Here the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology study polecats which they trap, fix tracking devices and then release them back into the wild. Here the magic mushroom (amanita muscaria) grow and pheasant, partridge and snipe shriek at unwanted human visitors.

One day in June I was making a circuit when I heard a kind of shrieking noise that, at first, I thought came from a jay. I approached with caution, parting the pampas grass as I inched my way towards the centre of the bog. I parted a particularly thick patch of pampas and witnessed an extraordinary scene. There perched on the top of a small tree was a large buzzard hawk: in its claws he held a dead rat which he was systematically tearing into edible pieces. Beneath him on the ground was a demented magpie screeching a kind of protest and dancing about in a crazy fashion. His gyrating pirouettes alternating with a kind of paso doble seemed to be unnoticed by the buzzard, who appeared to be bored by the antics below him and was content to allow him to feed on his droppings.

The buzzard eventually stretched his wings, eased himself into a take- off position and took off in the customarily clumsy, yet majestic way that buzzards do. My reflection on this ‘performance’ prompts the realization that psychologically or otherwise animal behaviour cannot be emulated in any laboratory.

John Gough, Newbridge on Wye, Powys

Profits of doom

The Robin & Humph Show rolls on (April). Wonderful! Surely these two must rank amongst the most caustic commentators of our times. With regard to Robin’s final paragraph concerning which political party has the will and power to pursue commonsense solutions to climate change, global warming and peak oil, the answer is – none mentioned in the pages of Countryman or any other publication needing profits to continue in business. Politicians, like the rest of us, are now in the hands of the few controllers of Global Corporacy which, despite its constant claims of having a conscience, ultimately has only one objective – bottomline profits.

The answer is very simple; humanity has to find another way of managing its affairs with itself and nature. Nature does not recognise money, capitalist economics and puffed-up human egos and nature has been severely damaged, possibly terminally for mankind, by human greed, arrogance and lack of consideration for anything other than man’s own desires.

Trevor Smith, Harwood

Never too late to help

I thoroughly agreed with Robin Page’s view; I have long been horrified with clerks in offices wearing comparatively light clothing and lights blazing ad infinitum. I can remember the lamplighter trundling around to switch on gas lamps and the days of no central heating. Oh yes, I appreciate all the delights but back in the 1950s we were faced with a ruling that working premises should have a minimum heat though I can’t recall what it was. We still went on donning extra clothing when we were cold!
Following a visit from the Home Energy Sufficiency supported by Welsh Office it was pointed out to me that if I switched off my TV at the main plug every night it would reduce my bill by £26 per year and that was at prices ruling four years ago; my hot water cylinder was already lagged and following re-roofing attic quilting was deepened further and long life bulbs fitted throughout the house.

This March I received an email from Australia on the subject of Earth Hour, which said that if we all (did this refer to Australia only I wonder?) turned off all our electricity for one hour on the night of March 31 this would effect a reduction in carbon emissions comparable to removing 75,000 medium sized cars from the road for a year.

I now turn off TV meticulously and have added to this switching off the microwave and anything else on standby. The latest email from my niece says that shower and bathwater are all saved for watering the vegetables, soapy water is used for blackcurrants, and showers are limited to two minutes. At ninety-one I can’t compete but I don’t clean teeth under a running tap. If we all get cracking and do our bit and Government does something about unnecessary lighting on roads and offices we should make a difference. How about using the Channel Tunnel or ferry rather than using a plane?

Joan E Gimson, Llechryd, Cardigan

Living off the wild

Years ago, country people relied on wild plants for culinary and medicinal purposes. Stinging nettles made into a ‘tea’ for blood disorders; dandelion wine for colds and flu; and elderberry flowers mixed with lard for cuts and bruises. During WWII dandelion plants were ground to make ’coffee’. The flowers made the very popular wine which children as well as adults drank. Elderberry wine was also very popular, and the berries used as ‘currants’ in cake making. To obtain a little sweetness (sugar was rationed) cowslips were picked in season and nectar obtained by sucking the end of the flower. There was also made a very beneficial and sweet drink called cowslip wine. Another very useful plant was wild garlic which was gathered and used in soups and stews – and also in hot water for bathing the feet. There were also many other useful fruits and herbs – thyme, wild strawberries and raspberries, rose hips and sloes.

Kathleen C White, Westbury, Wilts

Hopping back in time

A favourite pastime is reading back-copies of Countryman. November 2003’s edition contains an article by dear Humphrey Phelps on hop picking. It set me thinking: I lived in East Sussex in the late Fifties and early Sixties, around the Northiam, Battle, Bodiam area and witnessed the last of the old hop-pickers at work. At the time it had little significance, but forty years later I had an office in Southwark, London SE19. Rushworth Street is a non-descript little back street but is located in the heart of the area where hop-pickers lived half a century ago. In fact, hops were brought to Southwark from the Kent and Sussex hop fields and sold in the Hop Exchange in Southwark Street. The building is still there, looking rather sad but still sporting its hop carvings on the walls. I revisited the area again recently and, growing on small areas of waste ground at the end of Rushworth Street are wild hop vines, providing living evidence of the areas historic connection with the hop field of old. Long may they cling on.

Bob Tanner, Arundel, West Sussex

Cross-pollinated cowslip?

I was very interested to see the photo and read about the red cowslip (July). I live in Suffolk and I thought you might be interested to hear that I too had a red cowslip this spring, growing amongst other cowslips and primroses. A horticulturist told me it is very unusual but cowslips have been known to come out a different colour. My cowslip was next to a red polyanthus; perhaps it is possible somehow that the two have cross-pollinated? It will be interesting to see what happens next year and to see if we can propagate from it.

Darren Barton, Hadleigh

Who installed original memorial?

Like many thousands of servicemen, I did my training in Waller Barracks, Devizes, Wiltshire. Opposite the barracks there was a YMCA, a wooden structure, as I remember, where we all seemed to go for a cup of tea and a bun if we had the time. Not noticed by many, including myself, nearby stood a small stone memorial dedicated by the forces who served in Devizes in World War II which bears the main inscription ‘To those of many lands who passed this way to battle for right and returned not, this garden is affectionately dedicated’. On the other three sides are a Southern Command Flash, a YMCA sign and an olive branch.

When the land was sold to a housing association the stone was uprooted and sited in the new industrial estate, called Hopton, which was once, of course, Waller Barracks. During the move, the sundial which was on top was broken or went missing. Early in 2006 the local council decided they wanted to build on the area around the stone and said that the stone should be destroyed. However, ex-RAPC man Jim Thorpe and myself heard of this and set about trying to save it. Money was raised through various functions and now the stone has been cleaned, the wordings re-cut and the stone re-sited close to its original position thanks to the housing association – and a new sundial has been replaced.

Whilst doing this work, after exhaustive enquiries, we cannot find any information as to who placed this stone in front of the YMCA. As there were many thousands of troops of all nations who served in Devizes I am hoping that someone can come up with an explanation.

Peter D Morgan, Bexhill-on-Sea

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