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It’s a Brambling winter; a stranded kitten; some “beautiful rascals”; geese and an “iffy” bridge; a plummeting Spoonbill; the Wasp Spider; tranquility of The Ridge garden and past hopes for the future are recalled.

On January 14th 1950, Barry birded in the Hythe area, seeing many typical birds of the range of habitats there but his visit was primarily in order to witness a movement of Pied Wagtails going to roost, first noted several weeks earlier. Gran describes it:

The Wagtail movement commenced again at 4.27 [in the afternoon], with four birds, and in various sized parties, some of as many as one hundred and twenty birds. About 700 in all must have passed. The main, Southerly movement was in the direction of Calshot. Barry left the area at 4.50 to catch the boat for home.

These birds, rather like Starlings, are known to form sizeable winter roosts, usually in locally warm places, such as in town centres and on the roofs and eves of less-well insulated buildings. Nevertheless, I think it would be hard to find a roost of this size nowadays.

I have been frustrated throughout the journal by Gran’s lack of political comment about the times in which she lived, but it seems that she had no interest in such things. Even the views of others do not elicit any political statements from Gran. On January 24th she writes:

The afternoon was brilliantly fine and sunny but very cold. I worked in the greenhouse, cutting down old tomato plants and cleaning pots for seed sowing. Unfortunately I was not alone and was treated to the political views of the old man who also works at the Park Road garden. Not my strong subject at the best of times!

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 29)

Pesky Blue Tits; storm-blown seabirds; sore fingers; post delivered on Christmas Day; a strange use for a fungus; Gran sets foot in a Department Store, and what will the second half of the century bring?

October 28^th 1949:

I have always had a particular fondness for Bluetits [sic] and have smiled indulgently when they have picked the tops off milk bottles and drunk the cream, but the sight that met my eyes when I entered my bedroom…made me wonder if perhaps they were not such lovable little birds after all! I had noticed five of them on the ground beneath my window when I first came into the house but little did I know what mischief had been going on in my absence. The bedroom window was open about two inches. On the table in the middle of the room stands a very precious picture of wild flowers which Adrian painted. It has glass on both sides, with passe-partout over the top and down the sides until the frame is reached. The tit or tits had pecked this and strewn the paper in little bits all over the table and floor. It was almost completely stripped!

The dust jackets of two of Gran’s books, “Jefferies’ England” and “Apple Acre” by Adrian Bell had also been pecked and torn, and she writes that the desk and table and, “…irreverently, my Bible on a stool by my bed, all bore evidence of the intruders’ presence [droppings, I imagine], but he, himself, was nowhere to be seen”. A newspaper cutting between the pages of the journal, shows that Gran had sent details of the event to the local paper.

Barry, birding with his friend, John Crook, in the King’s Somborne, Timsbury and Romsey areas, finds what must be the rarest bird to date on his Hampshire list on the 30^th. Gran enjoys his experience by proxy, writing a detailed description of the bird’s plumage, its calls and of the circumstances of its finding:

Swimming in a flooded field where the Romsey Road crosses the Test was a Grey Phalarope, which caused Barry great excitement, it being a new bird for his Hampshire list. The bird was actually swimming on the flooded areas and only once did they see it walk. The bird was tame, allowing Barry and his friend to approach to within a few yards.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 28)

An influx of Striped Hawk-moths; some additions to the family’s Hampshire bird list; a rabbit is released in Devon; Jimsonweed in Eastleigh; Roger Deakin, Roger Tobia and John Crook; gypsies and farmers; the awesomeness of migrating salmon.

August 16th 1949:

During the morning a strange little procession arrived at my door. It consisted of my grocer, with a jam-jar in his hand, followed by his own and three other small boys all aged about five years, one behind the other like so many ducklings following the drake! The grocer said he had some strange creature with an awful stinger! When I looked at it, it was an innocent Pine Hawk caterpillar, the “awful stinger” being its harmless horn. I told them that if they liked to come in, Barry would show them a Pine Hawk moth, whereupon they all trooped in to see the Hawk moths, afterwards letting the caterpillar go again. We really do have some unusual callers and they seem to think we can tell them all they want to know about wild creatures – they bring the oddest things to us sometimes.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 27)

The athletic Goaters; some moving poetry; a new butterfly on St. Catherine’s Hill; a snake bite; a hornet sting; an Exhibition; two birthdays and the hurt of Bee Orchids.

Every evening, Gran describes the sunset seen from The Ridge, often in great detail, and when the sky is cloudy, she invariably writes, “sunset obscured”. On May 5th 1949 though, she misses it entirely:

…because I attended a concert given by a local troop of Girl Guides, of which Jane is a member. It was an excellent show and the spirit of friendliness increased by the presence of five members of a Polish Guide movement. It was almost dark when it was over.

A couple of days later she writes:

Having promised weeks ago to do something for Jane’s autograph album but having lacked both the will and the inspiration to make a start, I found both this afternoon and I think that the spirit of a greater artist must have guided my hand for I produced something of which I am not normally capable. I went up Kingsway first to make a sketch of a particularly attractive lone Pine tree and used this as the basis for Jane’s picture, setting the tree high up on a hill at sunset. Quite effective!

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 25)