Harvest Has Been in Full Swing and Trailer Loads of Corn Rumble by Sometimes As the Cart

Nature Notes Harvest has been in full swing and trailer loads of corn rumble by sometimes as the cart goes over a pothole or swings around a corner some of the grain spills out. Birds are quick to find the spilt grain by our entrance; firstly twelve chaffinches then they are bullied out of the way by three magpies, soon to be joined by another magpie and another until there are eight in all. Where have the magpies come from we usually only see two or three yet somehow the information of free food has been conveyed quickly to other members of the species. Finally they are joined by two jackdaws and a crow, then a movement across the window and they all disappear to be replaced again by the chaffinches. I go for a walk along the Gamber its cloudy cool and I’m not expecting many birds firstly a swallow chatters as it hunts with an elegant mixture of smooth, sweeping terns and abrupt jinks in the heavy humid air. Further on wren and dunnock call and a yellowhammer makes its distinctive jizz, on into the fields young bullocks loaf by the stream near the goat willow trees here birds call distinctively and fly in between the leaves one returns to an over looking branch, watches and darts out and grabs a passing insect then returns to its perch, a spotted flycatcher There are two more birds chasing each other not easy to see so I stay and listen – a chiffchaff calls, a willow warblers descending song is heard, a robin ticks, the spotted flycatchers continue chasing each other. A great tit flies past followed by four blue tits, another chiffchaff calls and the tinkle of a goldfinch is distinguished at the back of the willows, two more swallows fly near to the ground and a great spotted woodpecker alarms. A stock dove breaks out from the alders and more fly off in twos and threes up to twenty in all contrasting to the noisy flap of a wood pigeon. I walk on further a quiet knock sound a woodpecker or tit, listen again it is not really a knock more a tap, I approach closer to watch a song thrush banging a snail on its stone anvil to release its food out of the shell. I have been enjoying autumn raspberries larger and sweeter than the May/June crop whose old growth I’ve been cutting out and after digging in between the new canes. It was quiet very little traffic about, the autumn sun out as I carry out the task robins began to sing and chiffchaffs start to chiff, a small wren flits around must be a young one but I found no nest, a group of house martin move overhead on their long migratory route, the soft mellow yet distinctive call of a bullfinch is heard, but its shy and does not reveal itself so as I dig there are sounds only to be heard when quietly about a task. This year the hedgerows are full of fruit, our damson tree is over laden what do you do with so many damsons? – damson jelly then what, we shall leave the rest for the birds and mice to enjoy. J.R.P.