Life on the Wing: A Bird Chronicle From the Pages of the Times
Derwent May
Language: English
Pages: 130
ISBN: B007MAFOLG
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
From dainty avocets prancing along the seashore to panic-stricken waxwings frenziedly gobbling berries, from barking barnacle geese to soaring skylarks, Derwent May writes about birds in a very special way. As he goes in search of birdlife in a variety of places – the English lanes and rolling corn fields that he loves, the lonely Essex marshes, the remote bird-haunted islands of Grassholm and Fair Isle – May reveals just what it feels like to be a birdwatcher. With him, the reader will experience the excitement of fresh discoveries, the peace and contentment that birds can bring and the comedy to be found both in the behaviour of birds and the human response to them. May is an alert observer of avian habits and manners, describing them vividly and poetically, but underlying everything he writes is scientific knowledge and a wealth of experience. Employing all of these skills and drawing on his popular weekly ‘Feather Reports’ column from The Times, May creates a fascinating chronicle of a year in the life of our birds, from robins to rarities, with Peter Brown’s illustrations adding the perfect finishing touch.
non-breeding gannets rose into the sky. Some started diving for a shoal of mackerel. A swallow flitted daringly through the flock. It was time for us to go, but anyone can make their own trip to Grassholm through a firm called Thousand Island Expeditions. In many places the sky is full of starlings carrying food to the young in their nests. They fly straight and fast as they bring in beakfuls of insects that they have found in parks and fields. I have often thought that their name should
– among them Sizewell B power station, near Leiston, in Suffolk. The males are dashing little birds, practically all black, with bright red, quivering tails. The brown female also has the tail. Among Britons, they are best known to holidaymakers in Continental cities, where they nest on roofs. In Avignon once, I opened the window of my hotel room to look at the Papal palace in the distance, but the first thing I saw was a black redstart singing just in front of me. Their song is a brisk warble
including a pair that has nested in the city centre in Manchester, with the male singing above the heads of the shoppers. In Sussex, they have reverted to their ancestral habitat, with nests spotted on inaccessible cliffs. The best way to find one in summer is to listen for its song. There is not much birdsong coming down from city roofs and though the traffic may be noisy, the black redstart’s song comes down loud and clear in the gaps. I once heard one singing on top of the Indian YMCA in
birds that have drifted off their migration route from central Europe to Gibraltar and on to Africa. One has been touring around Kent, another round Sussex and, most recently, one in Dorset. It is a startling moment for us Britons when a stork comes swooping out of the sky and lands among sheep or horses in a meadow. They are very tall, white birds with a black rear, a long red beak and red legs. They plod about looking for frogs and grasshoppers and when they fly up again, they do not rest
have seen them resplendent in their breeding plumage off the Outer Hebrides, and on Islay I watched one diving in the Port Charlotte harbour while I was having breakfast in the hotel. In North America they are called loons, and are famous for their wailing cries in summer which are like mad laughter and weeping. These cries have been used as a chilling soundtrack in many films, where they have not always been appropriate. There are still wild turkeys in the world, though they are not in