Bullfinches

Soon after the waxwings moved on a party of bullfinches arrived on the crab apple tree in the garden, to feed on what was left of the shredded fruits, and they have been visiting frequently all day. The crab apples provide a useful diversion from our flowering cherry and pear blossom buds, which these birds tend to feed on from now until spring - although I'd have the bullfinches than the Concorde pears, which aren't very flavoursome. Generations of gardeners have lamented the ravages of bullfinches on their fruit trees. In his Journal entry of February 7th. 1791 Gilbert White, of Natural History of Selborne fame, wrote: "Bull-finches make sad havoc among the buds of my cherry, and apricot trees: they also destroy the buds of the goose-berries, and honey-suckles!" He also implicated greenfinches and, more improbably, grosbeaks in the devastation.

I have a suspicion that it's the seeds in the crab apples that the bullfinches are after, rather than the rotten fruits themselves, which are on the point of disintegration anyway.

As far as I can recall, we usually only have one family party of bullfinches in the garden in winter with just a single male, but over the last couple of days there have been four males in full, magnificent breeding plumage on the tree, which has generated some conflict.

Keeping wild bullfinches in cages has long been illegal but they were once popular cage birds and some bird fanciers learned that if they were fed exclusively on hemp seed their plumage would turn completely black. Birds can't make red or yellow carotenoid pigments, which come completely from their plant diet, either directly (from pear buds, in the case of bullfinches for example) or indirectly from eating animals that eat plants (from caterpillars in the case of blue tits), so it must be that hemp seed is low in these pigments and high in other darker ones that accumulate in the birds' feathers. But, as Gilbert White noted, all bullfinches are not equally susceptible. Here he is again, in his Journal entry for December 9th. 1781: "George Tanner's bullfinch, a cock bird of this year, began from its first moulting to look dingy; and is now quite black on the back, rump and all; and very dusky on the breast. This bird has lived chiefly on hemp-seed. But Dewey's and Horley's two bull-finches, both of the same age with the former, and also of the same sex, retain their natural colours, which are glossy and vivid, tho' they both have been supported by hemp seed. Hence the notion that hemp seed blackens bull-finches, does not hold good in all instances; or at least not in the first year."

If you are interested in reading more of Gilbert White's Journal entries, grouped together by year, they can be found by searching on the wonderful The Natural History of Selborne blog . Click here, for example, for his Journal entries for today, 7th. January between 1768 and 1793, which include mention of the first crossing from England to France by balloon, in 1785.

Better Late than Never...

Given that this winter has delivered one of the biggest waxwing eruptions in the North East in recent memory, we were feeling pretty disappointed that we hadn't seen a single one - until we pulled up the bedroom blind this morning and were greeted with this spectacle. Everyone seems to have a waxwing photo on their blog - so here are a few more...

A flock of about 20 were feeding on the rotting fruits of the crab apples (cv. Golden Hornet) outside the window, which had produced a bumber crop of apples this autumn. The birds staged a lightening raid, shredding the fruits for about 30 minutes before heading off into another garden ...... and they haven't been back. A magical half-hour, though.

A bird that looks permanently peeved....

Cormorants

"On the land they are dull and heavy" wrote the Reverend F.O. Morris B.A., describing cormorants in his A History of British Birds (3rd. edn., 1891). They may be heavy but this prolific (and often unreliable) 19th. century author and naturalist can't have looked too closely at cormorants because their feathers have a very attractive blue-green-purple iridescence when their plumage catches the light at the right angle. 

These birds, looking very satisfied with their morning's fishing, were roosting in the trees on the banks of the Tyne between Wylam and Newburn today.  Morris describes how cormorants were once tamed in Britain for fishing, mentioning that "King James the First was fond of this pursuit, and had a 'Master of the Royal Cormorants' ". Apparently the birds were kept in ponds at the site of the present Houses of Parliament. Morris personally watched tame cormorants kept by a Captain Salvin catching trout for their master in a small beck near his home in Yorkshire, but doesn't mention how the birds were persuaded not to swallow the fish; I imagine their throats were constricted with a ligature. 

The fishing skills of cormorants have long been resented by anglers, who still regard them with murderous intent. Morris mentions that shooting cormorants was once considered something of a challenge, even when they were only swimming rather than flying."In the old days of flint-and-steel guns," he wrote, "the first flash used to send the cormorant down, so quick was his eye, and even now it is difficult to get within shot." Cormorants may be adept at eluding shooters, but one unfortunate bird didn't see an express train coming. Morris relates the tale of a bird that "was struck down and killed by the funnel of the engine of an express train, as it was crossing the Lock of Spynie, in Elginshire, on 20th. of September 1852", which may well be the first account of a bird killed by the new-fangled technology of a steam train.