All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, 'twas God that made them all. Each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings, he made their glowing colours and made their tiny wings.
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Birds
12 birds commonly seen in St Andrew's churchyard
Robin
• Its red breast has traditionally been associated with the blood of Christ.
• Folklore has it that the appearance of a robin symbolises a visit from a deceased loved one.
• ‘The gardener’s friend’; follows the gardener as they uncover earthworms and insects.
• Males fiercely defend territories. Around 10% of adult robin fatalities are due to territorial battles. It has an average lifespan of just 13 months.
Songthrush
• Warm brown upperparts with heart-shaped spots on buff underparts.
• Often confused with the larger mistlethrush, which is more grey-brown with round dark spots.
• A consummate singer; sings its loud repetitive phrases from the top of its favourite tree.
• Diet includes snails which they hit on a stone (an ‘anvil’) to open the shell.
Great Tit
• Loud, metallic, rhythmic “tea-cher, tea-cher’ song.
• Each bird has a repertoire of up to 8 different songs.
• Mainly insectivorous but has been known to eat hibernating bats when winters are hard!
Goldfinch
• A flock is known as a ‘charm’ of goldfinches.
• It is said that the goldfinch took pity on the crucified Christ and pulled the thorns from his
crown, resulting in the crimson circlet around its bill.
• In Tudor times, known as the “King Harry redcaps”, a reference to the flamboyantly dressed King Henry VIII.
Greenfinch
• A gregarious, chunky bright yellow-green finch and a stout conical bill for breaking open hard coniferous seeds, females slightly duller in colour. Wheezy sneezy calls.
• Impressive courtship display; trilling loudly, the male launches himself from the top of a tree and flies with slow wing flaps around his tiny territory. Serves both to impress the female and to warm off rival males.
• Populations decimated over the last 20years, due largely to the parasite Trichomonas gallinae.
Goldcrest
• Our smallest bird with very high pitched song that is barely audible to many adult humans.
• Their fiery golden crown gave them the name ‘King of the birds’ in European folklore.
• Its Latin name Regulus regulus, meaning ‘petty king’ or prince.
• In late autumn there is an influx of birds from continental Europe, especially Scandinavia, a journey across the North Sea that was once considered impossible for such tiny birds that it was thought that they travelled on the backs of woodcocks, giving them the name “woodcock pilots’.
Nuthatch
• A blue and peachy banana-shaped bird with a highwayman’s mask, and a long bill used to prise away bark and to hammer to open seeds and nuts. A nut-hack!
• The only British bird that can climb down as well as up a tree trunk and hang beneath a branch.
• Squeaks, trills, twitters and gives a loud wolf whistle!
• Will nest in a disused woodpecker hole but first it must plaster mud or dung around the perimeter of the hole to make the opening smaller.
Swallow
• Long distant migrants spend their winters in South Africa.
• They build their mud-pellet nest on rafters in old buildings where they can easily fly in and out through an open doorway or window, and in porches, as they have done here at the church.
• They are agile aerial feeders, flying high and low and snatching insects from just above the ground or from the surface of a water body.
• A female swallow will prefer to mate with a male with the longest tail streamers.
Swift
• There is a nest box on the tower in the hope of attracting these spring migrants.
• Swifts only ever land to breed, so once fledged could be flying for 3-4 years before it lands.
• It eats, sleeps and mates on the wing.
• Fly up to 800km a day to trawl the air for insects, which they glue together with saliva, forming a ‘bolus’ (food-ball), which they carry in their throat-pouches.
• In bad weather adults can be away from the nest for several days, during which time the young birds can reduce their metabolism and go into a state of torpor until their parents return with food.
• In an average 9 year lifespan, a swift could fly as much as 1.5 million miles!
Jay
• A shy, loud screechy, colourful crow, whose bright feathers have long been used as fishermen’s flies.
• Crams its throat full of acorns for burying and caching for winter, planning for future needs.
• Forgotten acorns germinate, giving rise to more oak trees.
• A single jay was recorded as hiding as many as 5,000 acorns a day!
Greater Spotted Woodpecker
• Hammers its bill rapidly against a hollow tree trunk or branch to produce resonance, announcing its territory helping it find a mate. Can drum up to 40 beats per second.
• A mass of spongy material between the bill and the skull helps resist impact forces preventing the skull from fracturing. They also have an exceptionally long tongue to reach grubs in deep holes. The tongue divides into two and wraps all around the back of the skull, further protecting the brain during drumming.
Tawny Owl
• In folklore the tawny owl has a haunting call, traditionally associated with bad omens and death. Its eyesight could be as much as 10x better than humans in low-light conditions, and hearing 10x better than ours.
• Its asymmetrically placed ears improve directional hearing. The left ear being slightly higher on the head than the larger right ear, and tilts downwards.
• It can hunt using this sense alone, but the sound of falling rain can mask the rustling sounds of small mammals and prevents the owl from hunting. Prolonged wet weather can lead to the owl starving.
• The ‘twit-twoo’ is actually a conversation between two owls; the female’s call is a shrill ‘twit’ or ‘kew-wick’ and the male’s response is ‘twoo’ or ‘hoo…ho, hoo…hoo…hoo’.
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