HOUSE PROUD STARLINGS

I am interested to know if anyone has spotted nest building Starlings nipping off pieces of Rosemary as building material?

Apparently they do this in order to prevent their nest being overrun by lice, clever, eh?

Both of the Rosemary bushes in my herb garden have been raided in this way and it has been am interesting process to watch. They ignore all the other herbs which seems odd, I like women over many centuries use a combination of Wormwood and Lavender to keep moths at bay and it really does work. Perhaps there is something about Rosemary that nest mites dislike, whatever the reason it does seem very effective as unlike most birds you seldom see Starlings with scruffy tattered feathers after few weeks of sitting on their eggs.

Someone should pass on this handy tip to nesting Blue Tits who suffer badly from the attentions of nest pests. Female Blue Tits in particular spend most of the Summer months with the appearance if being in moult.

Swallows too have problems with unwelcome guests with each bird hosting several strange flat bugs triangular in shape.

Although herb strewing is said to be common in Starlings I have only encountered this behaviour twice, so if anyone else has noticed the birds behaving in this way I should be glad to hear about it.

A SNIP IN TIME

With the nesting season well underway I am very glad to see that the owners of the roadside hedges between the War Memorial and the School have, at last, trimmed back the overgrowth.

It must be said however their they were only stung into activity by a boot up the behind from the Parish Council!

I am astonished that they took such persuasion to carry out this work, and my concern in this instance is less for the welfare of our wildlife than it is for the school children and other hapless pedestrians for whom this is the only route to the Doctor’s Surgery, Brockton and beyond.

The pavement is narrow enough without having to fend off the trails of Bramble and other unfriendly foliage which proliferates along the way.

Add to that the fact that a good deal of soil and rubble has encroached on to the pavement making it even narrower.

Anyone pushing a baby buggy, or someone like myself who uses a Mobility Scooter is obliged to walk or ride on the road, and with the recent dramatic increase in traffic this can be unnerving and is certainly dangerous.

It is deplorable that our Shropshire Council refuse to address the state of the roads and the pavement, just as it is irresponsible of the Police to refuse to enforce speeding regulations through Worthen and other villages in the area.

However, the shortcomings of our Shropshire Council and the Police Force is no excuse for allowing a dangerous neglect of our pavements. In short, if they won’t do the job then we must.

To this end, Members of the Parish Council will be donning their wellies on April 7^th in order to clear the debris from this vital walkway and will, unfortunately, be obliged to trim back the few remaining areas of overgrowth in the interest of Public Safety.

Those who have neglected their boundary hedges and allowed this state of affairs to occur should be deeply ashamed of themselves. There have been several near misses along this stretch of pavement in the last few months, I wonder how these householders would feel if their negligence caused the death of a child?

They would certainly have many questions from the Authorities and the rest of the village to answer!

Once again I must remind everyone that the correct time to carry out work of this kind is between August and the end of February. This is the Law and it applies to everyone, EVERYONE, no exceptions!

ANGRY BIRDS!

There is a sense of urgency among the birds which inhabit our garden, stopped in their nest building tracks by the snow and icy wind,s they have returned to their springtime chores with a will, and having been unwell for the past couple of days ,I have had plenty of time to watch their antics from my comfy chair in the conservatory

Squabbles over the ownership of particularly choice twigs, or strands of dead grass break out every few minutes and mighty funny it can be to watch.
A female Blackbird, having spent an age attempting to detach a choice piece of dead plant material from the herb garden, wall finally tugged it free so suddenly that she ended up sitting back on her tail, and looking, most undignified.
Her troubles were not over, as her activities had been noted by a rival female who caught up the other end and a comical tug-of-war began which lasted for some time, at last, the original owner of the piece chased away her rival, having dropped the prize in her eagerness to see the interloper of the premises.
In an instant, a third blackbird bounced in and flew off with the deserted bit of dead plant.

Crows are well worth watching if you like a laugh as they constantly steal twigs from each other's nests, this happens so often that it is a wonder that their nests are ever finished. I swear I have seen the same forked birch twig change beaks half a dozen times in the space of a few minutes!

We have two pairs of Nuthatch in the garden, one pair has chosen a site in on old gnarled old plum tree, the other pair, surprisingly, are showing a great deal of interest in one of our sparrow boxes and I wait with interest to see if they take up residence among the noisiest possible neighbours.

A large male Pheasant, who has lived like a lord, feasting on peanuts all winter appeared today with a couple of females and showed them around the garden with the air of an Estate Agent showing a property to prospective buyers. They seemed quite taken with a couple of the less salubrious parts of the garden, areas seldom disturbed by any activity on the part of the gardener. Will they nest there? Time will tell, a couple of years ago a partridge successfully raised her brood here.

So much bustle, it is hard to believe that barely a week ago the garden was buried under a foot of snow with the birds fighting for survival, they are still fighting, but suddenly dead grass has become more important than suet.

ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

As some of you have noticed there is a pretty display of Spring bulbs in Worthen churchyard at the moment, pretty but expensive in more ways than one.

Last year the Parochial Church Council decided to clear up the churchyard and recruited a posse of volunteers to carry out the task, OK so far, the place had been neglected and like any garden, management is needed.

What happened next was not only disgraceful and tragic, it was, in fact, a crime.

The volunteers chose to commence their activities right at the beginning of the nesting season and continued throughout the entire summer so that both first and second hatchings were lost. Ivy was ripped from walls and trees, ivy which contained the nests of Wrens, Robins, and Thrushes. The nests of Nuthatch, Long-Tailed Tit, Green Finch, Chaffinch and many others were disturbed and were deserted by their owners.

In The U.K. it is a crime to destroy or disturb the nest of any bird, with the penalty of large fines and even a prison term for repeat offenders as those who commuted these acts of wilful cruelty most certainly were. To make the matter still more serious a number of Red List species were in the habit of raising their young in what had been the safety and seclusion of the old graveyard, not anymore!

Ground-nesting birds had their nests trampled and strimmed into oblivion and the secret places beloved of Dormice, Shrews Voles and the poor beleaguered Wild Bees were torn out, so devastating was this carnage that it will be years before this site will again be able to host these rare and precious guests.

When the complaints began all concerned claimed ignorance of any wrongdoing, this is nonsense, I am in a position to know that at least some of those who carried out the work were well aware of the damage they were doing, I know because told them myself. If the P.C.C. were indeed unaware of the law in this matter, should they be in charge of this lovely place?

Many of the ancient Yew trees were damaged by the hack and slash methods employed, those who complained were dismissed as “tree huggers” by these vandals who in a gross display of wilful ignorance they continued their butchery.

When the Parish Council became involved and ordered that the “work” should cease we hoped that at least there would be no further inroads made, now we are not so sure.

The P.P.C seem to be remarkably proud of what they have achieved and their self-congratulatory attitude to the mayhem they have caused is beyond belief.

It is, however not only the loss of so much valuable habitat and so many rare bird species which should cause disquiet to the residents of Worthen Village. Such damage was done to some of the trees that a qualified Tree Surgeon has had to be called in to effect repairs and stabilise some of the damaged trees, and the great mass of undergrowth ivy and branches has had to be left on the site by the volunteers has had to be disposed of very carefully as it contained poisonous plant material.

So who is going to foot the bill for all this stupidity? You, the residents of the village are going to pay for what has been done. Insult added to injury?

Unfortunately no amount of money can restore what has been lost to the village and this year instead of the sound of birdsong and the wonder of watching fledgling birds grow to adulthood, all you have is a display of pretty, but lets be honest very common spring bulbs of the sort you can see in almost every garden in Worthen at this time of the year.

I have no objection to the correct management of the churchyard, but it must in future be carried out at the right time of year and with the supervision of someone who knows what they are doing.

Lastly, I must admit to my own negligence in not reporting this matter to the authorities at the time. Some of those concerned were friends and I allowed that fact to cloud my judgment. Their behavior since my attempts to stop their activities has been such that this consideration on my part will not occur again.

THE END OF WINTER......WE HOPE!

One afternoon about two weeks ago Pa and I were tottering around the garden, the ground was soggy from the winter's rain but the signs of Spring were everywhere. Crocus, Snowdrops and Winter Aconite had attracted a few early bees and male Sparrows were flitting about with small white feathers in their beaks, each one a gift for its mate.

By the following morning, a bitter wind had flattened the Crocus flowers and this was soon followed by snow, snow, and more snow. Amorous sparrows had become beggars and the brave bumble bees had beat a hasty retreat.

Such a thick covering of snow made feeding the birds a tricky business, the hanging feeders and bird tables were doing a great job but the ground feeders were having a tough time finding anything edible among the soft deep snow. Pa and Richard put down trays, each weighted with a log in the most sheltered spots and these were filled with nuts seeds, bread crumbs, raisins and suet and some of last years apples were speared on twigs. The hardest job was keeping the water bowls free from ice, that and staying on our feet, poor Richard spent a good deal of time sliding about on his bum!

During this hard time, our garden was visited by Redwings and Fieldfares, driven by hunger to seek sanctuary among our usual visitors, and the Fieldfares certainly gave the Blackbirds and Thrushes a rough trot. There are few birds more feisty than a hungry Fieldfare and there were constant squabbles.

Every evening large flocks of Starlings spread like ribbons across the sky, heading for shelter after a day's slim pickings in the surrounding fields, we wondered where they were heading?

Almost as suddenly as it had arrived the snow melted away, leaving the lawns even soggier than before and exposing flattened crocus flowers and frostbitten Violas, but the daffodils had continued to grow under the freezing blanket and the small buds on Flowering Currant and Philadelphus seemed unharmed.

Before the day ended blackbirds were tugging at clumps of dead grass for nesting material and the Male Sparrows were once again to be seen courting their chosen mate each with a fluffy white feather, it was as if nothing had happened.

The late spell of bad weather may have slowed down the onset of Spring but now everything is making up for lost time. Soon the hedges will be home to nesting birds, and bees will busy themselves among the Cowparsley at the roadside.

Two weeks from now the transformation will be every bit as spectacular as was the snow which is now, happily, a thing of the past.