The Zoologist/4th series, vol 5 (1901)/Issue 718/Ornithological Notes from Norfolk for 1900, Gurney
THE ZOOLOGIST
No. 718.—April, 1901.
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM NORFOLK
FOR 1900.
By J.H. Gurney, F.Z.S.
Owing to the mild open weather, migration was very slow during the autumn of 1900 along the east coast, and I believe it was not much better in the spring; but I was away in the South of France during April and May.
I take the opportunity of comparing the arrivals of spring birds noted there with the dates taken in East Norfolk by the Rev. M.C. Bird.* My dates are for the Var Department, all of them made within sight of the Mediterranean, and about seventy
During September and October the wind in Norfolk was generally west, or some point of west, and it will be seen that it was so on the four dates on which Bluethroats appeared; but the Little Gulls seen on Oct. 21st by Mr. Southwell were driven to the shore by a high north wind. In Lincolnshire, as in Norfolk, Mr. Caton Haigh writes that the wind was persistently west and north-west, adding that up to the end of September it had been about the worst season he could recollect for migrants. With us the Rooks and Little Gulls seen by Mr. Southwell constituted the only autumnal movements out of the common, but Mr. Lowne observed an unusual number of Long-eared Owls in his district, though the season was very uneventful indeed, compared with many which I remember.
An Iceland Falcon is stated, in 'The Naturalist,' to have been shot in Lincolnshire during December; but there were remarkably few raptorial visitants to the east coast, the autumn being marked by an absence of Buzzards, though it is true I heard of two Hen-Harriers; and I one day saw six Kestrels near the sea (wind W.). A Honey-Buzzard—the only one notified—occurred near Thetford in November (E.T. Daubeny), but this is a species which in some seasons is no rarity.
The principal rarity to be mentioned is a Little Bustard in good winter plumage, which appeared in November. I must here allude to the fifteen Great Bustards turned out in the Brandon district last August (not allowed full liberty) by the enterprise of Lord Walsingham, in the hope that Norfolk and Suffolk may once again be stocked with these magnificent game-birds; an aspiration which everyone will share, though it remains to be seen what success will attend the attempt. In 'The Eastern Counties Magazine' for November, Lord Walsingham gives an account of the experiment so far as it had proceeded at the time of writing, and the birds are still quite safe, and in an enclosure of about eight hundred acres. Needless to say, the Norwich Naturalists' Society has done all in its power to second so laudable an effort, and will continue to do so, while on its recommendation the Poaching Prevention Society has also interested itself in the matter.
I am indebted as usual to various correspondents for most of my information, and have only examined those birds against whose names a dagger is placed. Notes on varieties are placed together at the end, there being no importance in the dates at which they may happen to be seen, nor much interest in pied birds of any kind; but melanisms and erythryisms by their rarity are always worth recording.
January.
7th.—Wet. Eagle-Owls making their usual nest-hole.
8th.—My son brought back from Cley a Pink-footed Goose,† and saw some Guillemots.
9th.—I am indebted to Mr. W.A. Dutt and Mr. Darkins, the decoyman, for particulars of the successful winter take at Fritton decoy—the best for many years; but these figures have been already communicated by Mr. Southwell (Zool. 1900, p. 239), and need not be repeated. I also learn from him that flocks of Goosanders and Smews frequented Holkham lake, and that a Shoveler was sent to Norwich. Among the fowl taken at the decoy, Mr. Dutt reports a Long-tailed Duck, a very unusual capture. At Holkham lake there has never been a decoy.
10th.—Several Bitterns were reported at the end of December, and also in the beginning of January, which is the Bittern's month par excellence, when they are doubtless frozen out of more northern countries. The movement was very extended, reaching to Devonshire and other parts of England, and also to Ireland. Mr. T.E. Gunn, the taxidermist, received six for preservation, of which five were males, a proportion in the sexes which has been noticed before by Mr. Lowne, who in fourteen years had obtained only one female.
February.
27th.—I learn from my correspondent, the Rev. M.C. Bird, to whom I am as usual much indebted, that during one of the annual Coot "battues" a Bittern was heard "booming" on Rushhills; this early utterance of a once familiar sound, which is strictly a pairing song, being no doubt provoked by the shooting, as Pheasants respond to thunder, or a Turkey-cock to a whistle. Gould, and previously Latham, both allude to certain dilatable membranes in the throat of the Bittern, which it is supposed produce this sound; but I have searched for them without finding anything more than one would expect to see in the neck of a Heron.
28th.—It may be remembered that in January, 1895, Little Auks were scattered broadcast along the sea-lines of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk, while three hundred dead ones were counted in the latter county alone. A repetition of this mortality took place during the months of February and March, 1900 (six weeks later than five years ago), when quite as many or more were picked up in Norfolk, but fewer were found inland; and the incursion was not so marked in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire (cf. 'Naturalist,' p. 140) as in 1895, although I learn from Mr. W.A. Dutt that many were picked up around Lowestoft, in Suffolk. The brunt of the incursion expended itself in a space of about fifty miles extending from the Wash to Lowestoft, and reaching its maximum at Cley, where the first intimation Mr. Pashley received of this important movement was from two being shot and one picked up on Feb. 26th. Between that date and March 14th they were brought to his house by many persons, even sometimes in baskets, and many when picked up were still alive. One man told Mr. Pashley that he found thirty-two between the rocket-post at Salthouse and Harbour Point. Others were picked up at more inland localities, such as Hempstead, Thornage, Bayfield, and Glanford. On March 20th, 21st, and 22nd the wind became easterly, and he was told that about thirty more Little Auks and seven Puffins had been counted on the shore. All this week, writes Mr. Pashley, there were frosts and hailstorms, and on March 27th, the wind then being north-west, more Puffins and Razorbills were washed up, together with the fossilized core of a large horn. In such weather it was obvious that the Alcidæ could obtain no fish, which descend to greater depths when the sea is troubled. The first example at Yarmouth was notified by Mr. Dye on Feb. 24th, an earlier date than for Cley, and thirty more soon afterwards, chiefly taken at Caistor and Winterton, by Mr. Patterson, who handled two recently dead on April 4th. These were the last I heard of in the county, and may even be regarded as the remnant of a return migration. At Cromer, Mr. Henry Cole reported three alive in the town-gardens, one on the watchhouse-green, the others lying or sitting upon the grass in Cromer Hall Park; while one was obtained on the golf-ground by Mr. Savin, who saw eight on the shore at Overstrand. Another was found alive in Northrepps village, near a pond. About the same time Mr. T.E. Gunn learnt from a friend that many were lying on the beach at Bacton, and on March 3rd twelve were sent to him from Sheringham (whence a Ringed Guillemot had been forwarded to Mr. Roberts), where other Little Auks were subsequently seen by Mr. Ernest Gunn, but not fresh. On March 1st Mr. Hamond met with four or five in Holkham bay, still swimming, and afterwards he found others cast up, the fate which probably overtook them all ultimately. When once thrown up they evidently were too weak, from want of food, to use their wings, and made no further attempt to regain the sea by flying. If they did fly, they were carried inland, where, beside the localities already mentioned, four others were picked up at Whitlingham, Stalham, Brinningham, and Scottow, and forwarded to Mr. Gunn, while Mr. Bird saw one at Honing. On this occasion the Auks were apparently accompanied by no Guillemots, but, if they had been, it is very possible by Brünnich's Guillemots, which unfortunately, in 1895, were not looked out for. These northern species move about together, and the Puffin of Spitzbergen, which could be recognized by its large size, is likely to bear them company. A few sanguine people tried to keep their Little Auks alive, but met with no success, as the birds always died in a few days. No doubt most of them were starving, though Mr. Gunn found fish-bones in the stomach of one. A few of the stronger birds, as I have already remarked, made their way inland, but the skeletons of these poor waifs were to be seen on the shore for fully eight months after the disaster; and a map of all the places where they were found would form an Auk-wreck chart. It will be remembered that in 1895 there was certainly some separation of the sexes, and apparently a preponderance of females; this time the only person who took note of sex was Mr. Robert Clarke, who dissected twelve, and found them nearly all females. We do not know what governs the separation of sexes in birds, but a great many instances might be quoted as proving that it frequently takes place to a certain extent, and generally on migration. It is perhaps as often noticed in the Chaffinch as in any bird, but the Brambling, Bittern, Blackbird, and Shore-Lark, among British Birds, may be cited as examples (cf. Zool. 1870, p. 2367).
On looking back at the past history of the Little Auk in the eastern counties, as recorded by the late Henry Stevenson, my father, and others, it would seem that Norfolk has had at least five great irruptions, and all in different months—viz. October, 1841; December, 1848; November, 1861; January, 1895; and February, 1900. Their visits were probably in part due to prolific breeding seasons, but still more to rough weather and unfavourable winds at sea. Without the latter, the Little Auks, however numerous at a distance from land in the German Ocean, might have lived to return north again, as they did in November, 1899, when there were not sufficient gales to cast them on the shore. It is probable that in 1841 there was the greatest visitation there has ever been, though not duly chronicled (cf. Prof. Newton's article in 'Science Gossip,' March, 1895), but 1900 and 1895 must have run it close.
March.
Mr. Patterson has already given a good account of birds seen in the spring, but the following additional notes have been made at his instigation by Mr. Jary, the watcher on Breydon Broad:—March 9th, S.W. A good many Wigeon. 13th. S.W., strong. 300 Wigeon and Mallard. 19th. N.E., strong. A Cormorant [on this day a Cormorant was brought alive to Mr. Patterson]. 27th. S.W. 28th. About 2000 Starlings on a marsh [A.P.]. 29th. Wedge flights of Starlings moving seawards [A.P.].
The following notes are from the Rev. M.C. Bird:—March 12th. Forty-four Wild Swans left Hickling Broad, where they had been some days. 17th. A pair of Great Titmice shot in the act of taking Bees from a hive.[1] 21st. Hundreds of Wood-Pigeons. April.
Mr. Jary's diary continued:—April 4th. W. Wigeon all gone. 14th. N.W. About 150 Wigeon and four Shovelers. [18th. Six Wild Geese, A.P.] 22nd. W., strong. Eight Shovelers and several Curlew and Grey Plovers, 28th. W., strong. About seventy Wigeon, and a Spoonbill (?).
The Rev. M.C. Bird's notes continued:—April 1st. Very many Yellowhammers. 6th. Large flocks of Starlings flying N.W. in the evening. 20th. About twenty Crossbills at Brunstead. 23rd. Garganey Teal seen; none known to have bred in the Broad District this year. 26th. Two Jack-Snipes.
The above is the only note I have of Crossbills for this year, with the exception of some at Belton, in Suffolk, where Mr. Lowne assures me they have been four seasons, and perhaps bred. During the month a pair of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers were observed running up and down some dwarf apple-trees in the garden of Shrimpling Rectory (Southwell).
May.
Mr. Jary's Diary:—May 3rd. S.E., strong. A lot of Whimbrel, six Shoveler Ducks, and a great number of Dunlin and Ring-Dotterel. 9th. N.E. A good many Whimbrel and some Grey Plover [black-breasted, A.P.]. 12th. N.E., strong. A pair of Shovelers and about fifty Bar-tailed Godwits. [16th. A pair of Shovelers, A.P.]
Mr. Bird's notes continued:—May 1st. An Osprey seen at Potter Heigham. 10th. Fifteen Ruffs and Reeves seen; Pied Flycatcher at Runton. 26th. Three Cormorants. Cormorants have been rather common, but I have only heard of one Shag.
June.
Mr. Jary's Breydon diary continued:—June 4th. N.E., strong. Twelve Spoonbills came to-day, and left again in less than two hours' time. 7th. W. Another Spoonbill and six Cormorants. 9th. S.W. Spoonbills gone. 11th. W. Two more Spoonbills. 13th. S.W. Spoonbills left to-day. 15th. S.W. Another Spoonbill. 18th. N.W. Spoonbill gone. 27th. N.E. Another Spoonbill came to-day, and went away again.
Several of these Spoonbills were also seen by Mr. Patterson, Mr. E.J. Eldred, and others, and it is very satisfactory to know that they were all protected. Mr. Patterson says they are even becoming common enough to receive the appellation of "Banjobills," and the day may yet come when, protected by public opinion, they will again breed in East Anglia, where we have plenty of tall trees and food of small fry for them.
11th.—I was greatly struck to-day by the pertinacity displayed by a Green Woodpecker, although birds in holes are always difficult to oust. We had two nests—our usual allowance—one of them in an ash, the other in an elm. The latter was so low down that I could insert my fingers or a thin pliable cane; but whatever it was, the Green Woodpecker, who felt herself master of the situation, assailed it with the utmost vigour, using that pick-axe beak with an amount of determination which would have meant death to the marauding Rat or Stoat. Owing to a stupid misunderstanding, a few days afterwards this Woodpecker was cut out of her nest-hole (a very noisy operation), and, after being well handled, was released. My daughters naturally thought it would forsake the spot, but to the delight of us all the bird was back again in the half-opened hole next day, and, being now carefully protected from further harm, she hatched her eggs successfully. When a few days old the young Woodpeckers, which became now the object of our care and solicitude, and were very noisy in the hole if they heard anyone approaching, developed a large and prominent knob at the base of the lower mandible and on either side, quite round at the top, and hard like a pea, as correctly shown in the illustration (p. 129). As the birds grew the knob diminished, and had almost disappeared when the time came for them to leave the nest. This curious growth appears to have been unnoticed by naturalists, as I cannot find any mention of it. Another peculiarity about young Woodpeckers is that the feathers seem to come without any previous growth of down. I may remark that some days before this curious knob disappeared the distinctive red of the cock's moustache was already visible. After some consultation we decided to try our luck in rearing one of them, which it was no easy task to extract from the hole, to the interior of which it clung with its hooked claws. With great care it was fed, and eventually reared on such soft food as liver (generally chopped up), German-paste, and fruit not too hard, and became very tame, readily coming to the hand which fed it, darting out its long tongue directly anything was presented, as well as drinking with it, and climbing up me as if I was a tree. Its tongue was repeatedly protruded about three inches beyond the tip of the beak, and when it came out it could be seen to vibrate rapidly—so rapidly that at a distance of a few feet the motion was imperceptible. At the end of the tongue there is a glutinous secretion, very noticeable whenever my finger was licked by the bird—a secretion to which it is said the ants adhere. The tip of the tongue had also three hair-like barbs on either side, projecting backwards, which would no doubt also assist in the capture of these insects.
At the end of forty days from the date when I opined our Woodpecker to have been hatched, it was a splendid bird, full-winged and full-grown (the eye and skin round the eye greyish brown), but with an awkward habit of standing with its legs apart, which made us afraid it would break them, as two Greater Spotted Woodpeckers which belonged to a friend had done. As it could now feed itself, it was often put on the grass, but, having made its way to a large oak, it ascended with oblique jerkings, almost beyond the reach of a long ladder; after this it was again condemned to a cage, or we should have lost it; and, I am sorry to say, a Rat eventually killed it.
The usual height of a Green Woodpecker's hole in Norfolk—taking the average of some hundred—is about twenty feet, and the excavation is always commenced horizontally; then, if the birds are in earnest, the hewing of the downward shaft is begun, and not many holes are abandoned after that. I have known a Woodpecker use the same hole a second year, and that in spite of its having been enlarged with a knife; but it is not usual. Neither is it usual to find the eggs stained, but that also occasionally happens. When they leave the nest-hole the young Woodpeckers are profusely mottled, but their first feathers drop off, except those of the tail, wings, and crown of the head, and are replaced by new ones—no change of colour, but a new feather.
12th.—The circumstance of ten Mute Swan cygnets in one brood at Keswick, and of two pinioned Wild Ducks laying seventy eggs between them, is perhaps not worth detailing; but the rearing of a nest of young Kestrels in St. Benedict's Church, in the middle of Norwich (S. Long), is of much local interest. A black egg of a Partridge† was laid near Fakenham, in a nest with other eggs of the ordinary colour (A. Digby), very undersized, and literally quite black, with an olive tint and some faint specks at both ends. A Corn-Crake at Northrepps had eight eggs† on the railway embankment in a circle of hay-bents beneath a small Dock, and two Nightingales' nests† in St. John's Wort were very pretty. Mr. Southwell writes of five Ring-Dotterel's eggs in one nest on April 12th, one more than customary; and a Wild Duck's nest in a tree provokes the usual wonder as to how the young get down. More Hungarian Partridges' eggs were sent over by Karl Gudera, of Lower Austria, and 64 per cent. hatched out by a gentleman in West Norfolk; but it was not a good Partridge year, although, as will be mentioned presently, the unaccountable spangled race again turned up, and that on the Bylaugh estate, where "Hungarians" have never been turned down.
The above are the principal nesting notes, with the exception that two young Cuckoos were reared by Hedge-Sparrows at Northrepps, and in one case both foster-parents took part in feeding the nestling. This youngster was quite equal to a mouthful a minute, by my watch, but, not staying long in one place, it became evident that other birds, on whom it had no claim, must have contributed to its wants; and no doubt this still went on after it was full-grown. In making out lists of Cuckoos' fosterers this habit needs to be remembered, and in a former paper I narrated an instance of a Cuckoo hatched in a Reed-Warbler's nest being fed by a Thrush. Cuckoos, however, which have not found a caterer for their wants are occasionally picked up dead, and one was brought to me this summer which I suppose had met its death from that cause. We had another young Cuckoo at Keswick, and it was noticed that the interscapulary feathers were the last ones to sprout, being still in their sheaths when the Cuckoo had become almost too big for its domicile, which in this case was again a Hedge-Sparrow's nest. The back and not the interscapulary region is employed, I believe, in the ejection of young birds by the Cuckoo; but I have never witnessed this singular operation, and there can be no connection between it and the growth of the feathers.
13th.—Bullfinches, as usual, nested in our box-hedge, which I have never known to be without a Bullfinch's nest; and here I may remark on the gratifying increase in this species of late years. Goldfinches are slowly increasing, as well as Tree-Sparrows and Hawfinches, but unfortunately the House-Sparrow also. It is not only Hawfinches which rob us of our peas, but actually sometimes House-Sparrows. In addition to their other delinquencies, they will bore through the pod of "Sutton's Ringleader," pull the pea out, and fly off with it to some adjacent apple-tree. Their beaks are very strong, and here they apply them first to one side of the pod and then to the other, until it generally gives away about the middle, and a small hole is sufficient for extracting the peas, which the proprietor and his gardener can watch them enjoying. Bullfinches are inimical to the garden, but they are also very fond of privet-berries and elder-berries; so they should not be too hastily shot down, for there is often a superabundance of fruit-buds, while in January they eat the buds of the larch.
14th.—Two clutches of Shoveler Duck's eggs, taken respectively at Woodbastwick and Lynford, have been hatched out under hens at Keswick by Mr. E. Knight. At fourteen days the beak showed a perceptible widening, which at twenty-one days had become marked, and the beak was also very long. Unfortunately all but three died, and the largest of these at eight weeks old showed the blue speculum on the wing; while at nine weeks the bills had grown very much, and were disproportionately large compared to their bodies. Their gradual assumption of plumage was very interesting to watch, but it was not until they were seven months old that the white chest of the drake began to appear. Mr. Knight also reared sixteen Pintail × Wild Duck hybrids, the Pintail being the male parent. These were about eight months in reaching their full plumage, and by that time the colour of the breast and head in the drakes was resplendent; but long before that their mixed parentage had been evident, even when they were only two-thirds grown. Thirteen of these hybrid ducklings were brought up under a hen, and the other three by their own parents. This month Mr. Bird was informed of a pair of Pochards being on Hickling Broad, the Duck feeding as if just off her nest, which may have been on the dryer marsh.
July.
10th.—Swifts reappeared in Norwich (Southwell).
12th.—Chaffinch and Thrush singing at Brunstead.
13th.—Very hot day. Barn-Owls screaming.
19th.—Two young Shovelers able to fly (Bird).
20th.—Sharp thunderstorm; eighty panes of greenhouse glass broken by the hailstones.
2Ist.—A Porphyrio at Sutton Broad, and again seen afterwards, but of which species was uncertain (Bird).
22nd.—Four Cormorants on Breydon Broad (Jary).
23rd.—Black-breasted Golden Plover killed at Sidestrand. This and the one last year at Waxham are the earliest I remember.
31st.—One Cormorant on Calthorpe Broad (R. Gurney). My keeper has had two Kestrels', one Sparrow-Hawk's, one Tawny Owl's, and two Barn-Owls' nests within half a mile of his three hundred young Pheasants, which the Sparrow-Hawks have not touched; but the Kestrels have paid him several unwelcome visits. Sparrow-Hawks are not so bad for game in coops as they are often represented (cf. Heatley Noble, Zool. 1900, p. 423); they like a bird which can fly; but Kestrels are certainly worse than they used to be. I have found tame Peacocks which stray into the woods a still worse enemy, and it is difficult to defend the Carrion-Crow, whose character with gamekeepers is of the blackest; yet I still generally hear of one nest hereabouts, and have a live one at the time of writing.
August.
On the 3rd very many Common Terns, as well as Lesser and Black Terns, were seen by Alfred Nudd on Hickling Broad, all heading against the high wind (Bird); and the next day, and also on the 8th, the wind being north-west and again very strong, Mr. Jary, the watcher on Breydon Broad, saw the Terns there, and what he thought were two Little Gulls. But the Terns were not the only birds which felt this cold wind. As is well known. Swifts are very sensitive to cold, and one of these birds, after flying some time round my house, entered a bedroom. Six more did the same at Postwick (G. Cross), and some House-Martins were scarcely able to fly. It seems they were affected in the same way in Norwich, for Mr. Southwell writes:—"On the 3rd of August the temperature fell rapidly, and a south-west gale set in, which was very destructive. On the morning of the 4th Chapel-field [gardens in Norwich] had the appearance of being wrecked, .... Under the shelter of the main avenue there were twenty or thirty Swifts flying rapidly backwards and forwards quite close to the grass, evidently seeking shelter and searching for food. Large numbers of Sparrows and Robins were on the grass, and the old birds were feeding their young. It was really a most curious sight." This weather lasted until the 9th, and on the 14th the wind was in the east. Swifts were benumbed by the cold in 1859 and 1881, just as in the present summer, and it is evident they are very susceptible to it.
During this month Corn-Crakes were again rather abundant, nine being flushed in one harvest-field at Sidestrand, and many others seen near the coast (cf. Zool. 1900, p. 108). Prior to last year these birds had been very scarce. Spotted Rails have also become very rare, but both these birds are largely eaten in the South of Europe, a fact which may account for their diminishing numbers, as it most certainly does in the case of the Quail. At the end of the month, when the weather had improved, fifteen Quail's eggs† were found in cutting wheat at Cawston (W.H. Bidwell), a good clutch and a late date. Although on different occasions several hundreds of Quails have been turned out in Norfolk, no effect has apparently been produced, and the birds keep on getting rarer; the last nest reported was at Fakenham, and it is many years since I have heard of any eggs in the Cromer district.
September.
1st.—W. This being the day on which Norfolk shoreshooting now opens (except for Ducks), I took a long walk on the beach, annexing a Temminck's Stint,† adult male, and noticing a great many young Turnstones. High-tide mark presented its usual line of zoological rubbish, including fifteen remnants of Little Auks, one Razorbill, one Guillemot, four young Puffins, five Starlings, and a Rook; but most of these had been dead a long time, and the Little Auks since March. The show of Terns was very good, and when this is the case we always, in September, have Richardson's Skuas, and I obtained a good opportunity of watching their piratical habits, though I must say the Lesser Terns are altogether too confiding, lending themselves to robbery by flying about with fish in their mouths, which it would be much easier to swallow. Probably they catch more fish than they can eat; anyhow, the dexterous Skua sees his opportunity, and, dashing at the Tern, easily catches the silvery prey before it can reach the water.
3rd.—My nephew, who was sleeping on board a smack, saw Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Greenshank, Whimbrel, Shelduck, Gannet; and, on the shore, Whitethroat, Ring-Ouzel, and what he believed to be two Blue-throated Warblers; and his companion shot several Turnstones, and another man shot a Scoter.
5th. Three Black-tailed Godwits reported on Breydon (Patterson).
6th.—Went to Cley again, and saw, at Mr. Pashley's, a very young Red-necked Grebe† with dark facial stripes, which had been shot on Blakenny bar. The occurrence of such immature Grebes is certainly curious, and this is the third, if not the fourth Podicipes griseigena taken at Cley, and two of them were not full grown (cf. Booth's 'Rough Notes,' pt. xiii.; Zool. xi. p. 142); yet there does not seem any likelihood that they are English-bred ones.
8th.—Solitary Snipe in Yarmouth market (Patterson).
9th.—W. Five Blue-throated Warblers seen at Cley, of which one at least was an adult male;† and the next day, the wind being again west, a young one was shot (Pashley).
13th.— Pectoral Sandpiper in Suffolk (Zool. 1900, p. 531); wind N.E., but with us it was S.E., and the day before N.
18th.—W. Two more Bluethroats, a Pied Flycatcher, and a Blackcap on the shore (Pashley); the wind on 16th and 17th was S.W.
October.
1st.—Pair of Pintail at Yarmouth, the duck unusually rufous (Patterson). A Solitary Snipe† sent to Mr. Cole; wind yesterday S.W.
2nd.—W.S.W. A Buzzard† circling over our boathouse, or some large bird of prey like one.
3rd.—N.N.W. Mr. Gunn saw on the coast about ten Richardson's Skuas, and a good many immature Gannets, Red-throated Divers and Razorbills, one Guillemot, and one Sandwich Tern; and Mr. Pashley reports two Pomatorhine Skuas, a Little Stint, and a Grey Phalarope about this time.
16th.—Scoter shot on Rockland Broad (R. Gurney).
21st.—[N.E. at Keswick.] Nine or ten Little Gulls, mingled with large numbers of Common and Black-headed Gulls, observed for some time off the harbour pier-head at Lowestoft by Messrs. T. Southwell and H. Bunn, but only one came into the harbour. Mr. Southwell considered their presence due to the high north wind, which was force five, with frequent rainstorms. From ten o'clock until two he also took notice of a constant stream of Rooks coming in from the sea in parties of from two to a hundred, and this movement was continued on the 22nd, when the wind was N.N.W.; but the Rooks were then in much smaller numbers. It would appear that this movement of Corvidæ had a broad front, extending as far as Yorkshire, for on the 20th unprecedented numbers of them had been seen at Humber Mouth, and smaller detachments on the 21st, by Mr. Caton Haigh. At the same time that Lowestoft Harbour was full of Gulls, Mr. Patterson reports Breydon Broad as being also crowded with them, but the Little Gulls were not detected there.
26th.— S.S.W. A Little Owl shot at Oulton (W. Lowne); perhaps not a migrant, as so many have been turned out in Kent (cf. Meade Waldo, Zool. 1900, p. 556) and Buckinghamshire; the day, however, was coarse and windy enough to have driven any migratory bird out of its reckoning, and October is the migrants' month.
31st.—S.W. Messrs. Mortimer and Ramm saw ten Bluethroats on the coast (Pashley), but did not molest them. This is the latest date any have been seen, but it was a remarkably warm day for the time of year.
November.
10th.— W.S.W. A Barn-Owl of the fulvous type shot at Lowestoft (H. Bunn). Fulvous examples are generally supposed to be of foreign origin, and the high wind from S.W. last night may have brought it over. This Scandinavian race was first recognized in England in 1864 by the late Henry Stevenson.
11th.—We have a very late Barn-Owl's nest in an elm-tree in a hole in an arm four feet deep and a foot wide about, and how the old bird gets down to the young ones and then returns is somewhat of a mystery. Barn-Owls, like Wood-Pigeons, are distinctly irregular in their time of nesting. They generally make use of a tree, but a hollow arm is safer. Here they construct no nest, and any sticks which may be found are sticks which have been brought in by a former owner. If disturbed they often try to impart terror into the intruder by a ludicrous swaying to and fro of the body, which at the same time is attenuated by muscular contraction of the feathers. Other Owls have their characteristic ways of defiance, but quite different from the habits of our mousing favourite, the Barn-Owl, whose white body seen swaying in the dark quickly shows a fresh comer that the residence is occupied. In this instance they selected a hole which in a previous season had produced a brood of young Tawnys.
20th.—Another Barn-Owl's nest, containing only two young ones, however—one of them in the down, and the other almost as fully feathered as its parents—an extraordinary contrast, for the elder bird may have sat upon and hatched the egg from which the younger one came. Two is a very small family, for the Barn-Owl will sometimes have six, and I have twice found as many as seven eggs. When the young are nearly half-grown they make a peculiar wheezing or snoring sound, which, I believe, I have also heard proceed from the parent, but of this I am not sure. By remaining perfectly still it becomes distinctly audible, but the Owls are very alert in detecting the sound of footsteps under their tree. It is difficult to understand what purpose this wheezing noise can serve, and unfortunately it often leads to their detection. I have encouraged and protected Owls in every way for many years, but never had nests in November before, and do not for a moment believe that either of them contained a first brood. One of my Owl-tubs which blew down some weeks ago contained what I can only describe as a felt carpet of mouse remains, the stamped-down pellets and rejectamenta of two years; but mingled with this mass was the platform of a Stock-Dove's nest. A Barn-Owl's home is at all times distinctly odoriferous, and compares unfavourably therefore with that of a Tawny Owl, which latter bird, I am assured by Mr. Meade Waldo, never leaves castings in its hole. It was from the above-mentioned tub that Mr. Bird and I on one occasion counted the skulls of thirty-eight Sparrows, one Rat, one Shrew, one Long-tailed Field-Mouse, and two Short-tailed ditto, which my man had thrown out; but in general my investigations have shown a much larger proportion of Mice than that. A pellet generally contains two Mice, sometimes the bones of four, and it does not take very long for thirty or forty pellets to accumulate in a hole, and probably four times as many are ejected elsewhere. Many of the old Norfolk barns have "Owl-holes"—round holes at the top under the eaves—but now that the plan is to stack everything out of doors, and sell the grain when it is threshed, the Owls' services are not so much appreciated. There is still a prevalent idea that Owls and Cats will kill but not eat Shrew-Mice, which is quite erroneous so far as the Barn-Owl is concerned, for Shrew-skulls are often to be found in their castings; but I have never found remains of a Bat.
Field-Rats have been more abundant during the autumn of 1900 than for many years, and no wonder they increase when the gamekeepers systematically destroy nature's police. Persons may do great harm who spread poison in stacks for Mice, as Barn-Owls have been killed near Lynn with poisoned Mice. I have lately heard of two Barn-Owls caught in Rat-traps whilst in search of the very vermin for which the traps were set. In one case the steel-trap was so far down a Rabbit's hole (more than a foot) that it is a marvel how the Owl stretched its leg far enough in to be caught.
26th.—A Little Bustard,† female adult, shot at Ludham, in the Broad district, by Mr. Neave. A Red-necked Grebe shot at Somerleyton (H. Bunn), and five Egyptian Geese out of a flock of nine on Breydon Broad (B. Dye), whether really wild ones it is impossible to say. This week Mr. Gunn received a Grey Shrike from Diss.
28th.—Eight Norfolk Plovers which had not emigrated flew over a friend whilst shooting at Cranwick, near Brandon, a proof of the mildness of the month. Young Wood-Pigeons a few days ago were still in a nest at Caister, and I had five House-Martins in my garden on the 13th.
December.
2nd.—Four House-Martins at Keswick, one near Swaffham, one at Northrepps a few days afterwards, and one at Feltwell; and, at the end of the month, either a Swallow or a Martin in Cromer churchyard (the 'Field.') In Norfolk, Martins have oftener occurred in November and December than Swallows, probably because they sometimes have very late broods; and this may be the result of persecution by Sparrows, which has also tended to make them much less common than they used to be.
6th.—My young Barn-Owls are still in the first nest in the old elm, but perhaps it is only as a dormitory that it is used. The young, however, are always very slow in maturing, not being properly fledged for seventy days; they are invariably of different sizes, and they do not leave their nest-hole so soon as young Tawny Owls.
7th.—This parish is also never without its Tawny Owls, but they do not nest in my tubs, prefering a natural hole. I have seen a young one peep out long before it could fly properly, which a White Owl would never do, and the young ones are not infrequently picked up on the ground. One so found, which we caged, is now a fine bird, and every night and morning one of its wild relations comes and hoots outside the cage, but never brings the prisoner anything. I like nothing better than listening to the weird "hoo-hoo" of three or four Tawny Owls answering one another on a starlight night in December—a sound so vigorous, and yet so difficult to locate; and I believe Lord Lilford is right in saying that a clear frost only makes them more noisy. They go on at intervals to midsummer, and young and old carry on a regular concert at the end of July over their evening supper in the ivy-clad trees. The Tawny Owl is not so dazzled by the light as a Barn-Owl, which in the daytime acts as if it was half-blind. A curious accident happened in April to an Owl which struck the engine of the Fakenham train whilst in motion, attracted, it was supposed, by the light on the engine. It passed clean through the engine-driver's small look-out window, smashing the thick glass to pieces, and was picked up with only a broken leg. From the stationmaster's description it was probably a Tawny Owl. Owls sometimes, I am told, fly round Cromer lighthouse without striking, either attracted by the light, or in pursuit of moths which hover round it.
31 St.—A hen Pheasant shot about this time at Caister had spurs, but no indication whatever of male plumage, as I am told, for I only saw its leg. It is not the first time such a Pheasant has been obtained, but they are very uncommon.
Varieties of Plumage.
One of those curious chestnut-coloured Partridges was seen near Dereham in October, and the same or another was shot near that place on Nov. 23rd, by which time it was in superb plumage, and very like the plate in 'The Zoologist' (1900). I am much indebted to Mr. W.L. Boyle for this richly marked example,† which has the usual light-coloured head, but is rather greyer on the upper part of the back than the one I illustrated. Surely no such persistent instance of erythryism is known in any other species of bird; while the similarity of all the Norfolk specimens is very remarkable, and might well excuse the continental naturalists of a former generation for making a species of Perdix montana. About Dec. 20th another † was shot, also on the Bylaugh estate, and transmitted to Mr. Gunn, at whose house I saw it—a large bird, much more spangled on the back than mine, but having, like the rest of these birds, a little of the pale colour of the head scattered over the upper part of the breast. Both my Partridge and the December one had, when fresh, the red patch of skin behind the eye which is a character in adult Partridges of the normal type.
On May 18th the Rev. M.C. Bird received an albino Robin from Hempstead, and in September the 'Field' recorded a white Swallow at Gunton, in which month I saw a pied Robin† at Northrepps. A pied Mallard† with a very dark back, forwarded by Mr. Patterson, was bought in Yarmouth market, but may not have been a wild-bred one. Mr. Lowne received a primrose-coloured Greenfinch alive from Bury St. Edmunds.
Correction.
The Ruddy Shelduck,† stated to have been shot near Yarmouth (Zool. 1899, p. 123, and 1900, p. 530), was, I now find, shot at Blakenny by Mr. Long, the well-known wildfowler, and it is impossible to say whether it was a wild bird.
Affection among Birds.
A pair of Barton Mute Swans frequented Mrs. Lubbock's little broad at Catfield during the autumn; one of these birds was wounded (an old gunshot wound probably), and died at the end of September. On October 1st Mr. Bird saw the hen Swan sitting by the side of her departed—feather to feather. This she—more or less, off and on—continued to do, never going more than a few hundred yards away, until the carcase was all gone excepting a few feathers and bones. Even the large bones—sternum, leg, and wing bones—had been carried away (by Rats and Crows) before the poor old hen relinquished her watchings, for on November 26th Mr. Bird disturbed her from within a few inches of the remains.
- ↑ Some Tits at Keswick once behaved in this manner, attacking and killing Bees as they went in and out of the hives; but Mr. Forrest has recorded a Great Tit's nest as actually in an active hive (Zool. 1900, p. 143).
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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