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A new food item for a Goldcrest; a Shetland adventure leads to damaged feet; a trip in a fish lorry; a Blackbird saga in the garden; a visit to Titchfield; Jane tours the west; Gran battles cats, and who stole the sounding board?

Book 17

March 21st 1950 – the first day of Spring – sees Barry and Jock in the New Forest where, in the low-lying areas close to Beaulieu Road Station, they estimate four or five pairs of nesting Curlews, the birds displaying in flight with bubbling songs and long glides on raised wings. Many years later, in 2004, this by coincidence, was one of the areas I surveyed for the same species, on a Summer’s contract with the RSPB, in order to update work on the Forest’s breeding waders carried out by the well-known Forest naturalists, Colin and Jenni Tubbs in 1994. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 30)

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.

[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!

[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.

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