Male wheatears spy out the land: Country diary 100 years ago

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 30 March 1916

Wheatears have come; they were nearer than I thought when I last wrote; one, in fact, was seen by a friend in a field at Ashton-on-Mersey on Sunday. On the same day, a correspondent tells me, there were five near Aberystwyth, a place where early wheatears, coasting round Cardigan Bay, are often met with. It is interesting that all the six birds were males, for the cock birds appear to come in advance, as if to spy out the land or test the weather. It is not early for this the first of our true summer birds, for the wheatear is not held back as a rule by weather, although it is generally ready to take shelter from rain or snow in any rabbit burrow or other convenient hole. The south coast shepherds used to take advantage of this habit, making false burrows, really traps, for the nervous birds, which at one time fetched a fair price in the London markets as "ortolans."

A friend who is staying for a time in North Wales has been much interested in a woodpecker which visits the trees in front of her window. From her description of the bird and its antics it appears to be the smallest and rarest of our three species, the lesser spotted woodpecker. It is about this time that the woodpeckers begin that strange spring call which is caused by rattling rapidly on a bough with the bill. This sound, which carries for a great distance, is called "rattling"; it may be a love call, but it is just as likely that it is a kind of war drumming, a challenge to rivals.