Recording the Manx Shearwater
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RECORDING THE MANX There Kennedy and Doctor Blair, SHEARWATER Tall Alan and John stout There Min and Joan and Sammy eke Being an account of Dr. Ludwig Koch's And Knocks stood all about. adventures in the Isles of Scilly in the year of our Lord nineteen “ Rest, Ludwig, rest," the doctor said, hundred and fifty one, in the month of But Ludwig he said "NO! " June. This weather fine I dare not waste, To Annet I will go. This very night I'll records make, (If so the birds are there), Of Shearwaters* beneath the sod And also in the air." So straight to Annet's shores they sped And straight their task began As with a will they set ashore Each package and each man Then man—and woman—bent their backs And struggled up the rock To where his apparatus was Set up by Ludwig Koch. And some the heavy gear lugged up And some the line deployed, Until the arduous task was done And microphone employed. Then Ludwig to St. Agnes hied His hostess fair to greet; And others to St. Mary's went To get a bite to eat. Bold Ludwig Koch from London came, That night to Annet back they came, He travelled day and night And none dared utter word Till with his gear on Mary's Quay While Ludwig sought to test his set At last he did alight. Whereon he would record. There met him many an ardent swain Alas! A heavy dew had drenched To lend a helping hand; The cable laid with care, And after lunch they gathered round, But with a will the helpers stout A keen if motley band. Full soon rigged up a spare. To Illiswilgig isle they fared, But strange to say upon that night Where many a slippery weed Few Shearwaters were heard; Made landing of the heavy gear (Ludwig meanwhile recordings made A strenuous task indeed. Where Stormy Petrels churred). There steadfast Joan and Rodney bold But see! Miss Quick a hole has found Hied to the topmost peak Where Shearwater calls loud; Where Cormorants in nests had young Doc. Blair inserts the microphone Which might be heard to squeak. And hushed is all the crowd. And there the microphone was fixed; And so, before the morning light, Then Ludwig far below On records twain—or three— Recorded hopefully each sound Shearwater's voice from underground Till tide forced him to go. Good Ludwig charts with glee. Next day on Crebawethan far, " Now seek me out a photo-man Where ever heaves the main, That all the world may see For further sounds of Cormorant That Ludwig Koch is still at work Tries Ludwig yet again. Despite the B.B.C." Recording gear did Koch set up So to him straight from Penzance flew Within the vessel's hold A wight yclept Penhaul, While cable over sea and rocks Skilled was he with his camera Was run by helpers bold. And stout of heart withal. Once more the microphone is fixed And in the night—with flashlight bright- Where Cormorants had young, Good photos did he take While Joan and Koch in cabin cooped Where Ludwig worked the birds among, From side to side are flung. Recordings for to make. But grim the record that they make, To Annet twice again at night Great Black-backed Gull% descends— Don Hicks them took across. A sound of wings, a feeble cry— Alas! Alas! For want of discs With that the record ends. That first night proved a loss . " I will not leave for London town The second night a wind arose, Till I have tried once more (Of fate an ill-timed jest), Records to make of Shearwaters So Koch, undaunted turned his face In air 'bove Annet's shore". Towards another quest. So back to Annet Koch returns, The Major's launch stout ' Captain Will' The night is calm and fair To help them did provide, And Shearwaters are all around: An agile lad he brought withal— Their clamour fills the air. Joan did the party guide. Unloaded is the cumbrous gear; Trouble is caused by dew; Then crackling grass and Petrels loud Make problems not a few. At last the airborne sounds are clear, At last those sounds recorded, So Ludwig's pertinacity Is handsomely rewarded. By Dr. R.H. Blair From the 1980 volume of Birds in Cornwall, the Fiftieth Edition. ORNITHOLOGY IN CORNWALL, B.C. to 1931 By R. D. Penhallurick At what early stage of development man took an interest in birds as things worthy of attention merely for being what they are is hardly ascertainable and of no real consequence, but what can be agreed is that primeval study centred on the extent to which the fowls of the air were, or were not, edible. The earliest evidence we have of birds in Cornwall concerns Man contenting his stomach. Bones do not survive for any great length in the acid soils of the south-west. Luckily there are exceptions and bones survived in unusual quantities at the pre-Roman Iron Age site at Nornour, off St. Martin's, Isles of Scilly. In contrast to the super-abundance of birdwatchers, those qualified to identify bird bones are as rare as hen's teeth. Fortunately our county is blessed with the presence of Dr. F. A. Turk who has recognised the remains of Cormorant, Gannet, Goose sp., Duck sp., White Stork, Razorbill, Guillemot, Puffin, Shearwater, Partridge, Black Grouse, Domestic Fowl, Song Thrush, and probable Wren, Raven and Skylark. Just as today the Razorbill is the commonest auk on Scilly, so its bones outnumbered those of the Guillemot and Puffin on Nornour. Besides being a source of meat, the auks may also have supplied oil for lamps. The Romans took more interest in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly than is often realised, and the county boasts the only villa west of Exeter at Magor near Camborne. Here, too, were ornithological remains, for the lower end of a humerus and a tibia found on the 2nd-3rd century AD site belonged to a Woodcock, a bird long held in special affection by the Cornish for the winter sport it affords ; the county still holds the record one day bag for England and Wales of 106 Woodcocks shot on 21st December, 1920 by six guns on the Lanarth estate, St. Keverne. Already we have listed birds common enough today. Nothing particularly exotic here, apart from the Black Grouse which survives as a breeding bird in Devon but which was last found nesting in Cornwall in 1904 on Bodmin Moor. Following the Roman period, the next bird remains belong to a species which is a regular winter visitor to our shores nowadays — the Great Northern Diver. Its bones were found on the island of Samson, buried sometime between the 6th and 9th centuries AD. The Puffin, already referred to, has as long and interesting a history as any bird in the county. Its Cornish name nath survives in Nathaga Rocks in Gwithian parish, and continued in use into the last century as a dialect name in north Cornwall half a century after the death of Dolly Pentreath, traditionally the last Cornish speaker, at Mousehole in 1777. " Pope," recorded by John Ray in 1662 and used until recently, if not still, in St. Ives is Cornish popa, another name for the Puffin. Of all its dialect names, " Scilly parrot " is easily the most appropriate, for it is here that the species was most prolific. Mediaeval records attest to the species' importance as food and as a means of currency. According to the Romans, the Cornish preferred to barter than to use coin, and here we see the tradition lingering. In 1296-97 we find the payment of 6s. 8d. for 300 Puffins for rent, a payment probably made to all the earls of Cornwall beginning with Richard in 1225, and perhaps dating back to 1141 when Reginald de Dunstanville was created Earl of Cornwall and Scilly. Of interest here is a grant of rent dated 1336-37 in which John de Allet (Allet near Truro) agreed to pay Sir Ralph de Blachminster 150 Puffins for his lands in Bryher 95 and St. Martin's : if John or his heirs defaulted, payment was lawful in money at the rate of 1d. for three Puffins " at the terms of the charter of Richard de Wycke." There are three men of this name at Scilly between 1176 and 1227, and de Wycke's charter may well have been drawn up to allow people to pay in money rather than in birds. The money had to be paid at Launceston Castle. The rent continued until about 1550, but was always in money. Eating Puffins, " reputed for fish as coming nearest therefore in their taste," may have continued at Scilly until after the mediaeval period, though during the privations of the off-islanders in the early 19th century there is no evidence of their supplementing starvation diets of limpets and little else ; a curious lack of enterprise by the generally resourceful islanders. Gulls as well as Puffins were certainly taken within historic times for payment as rent, as Leland recorded at Scilly in 1538. Nor was the mainland excluded, for a late 16th century interrogatory refers to a dozen gulls and other birds as a rent for " the Gull Rocke next the land called Penhale, in the parish of St. Peran," while the annual tithe in 1611 for Padstow's Gull Rock was two gulls, and continued to be so until at least 1714 when a lease of 1st December adds that the lessee " shall and will endeavour to preserve the gulls by feeding them," presumably on grain to make them more palatable as Richard Carew had inferred in 1602.