NATURE NOTES

If I’m doing this — writing Nature Notes for the new Grapevine — it’s because about eighteen months ago, John Durst, who by that time already had considerable difficulty in making himself understood through the medium of speech, but none whatsoever through the written word, used his acute hearing on a loquacious Roger Coombes to understand that I was seriously interested in ornithology and persuaded me to write a piece about birds in Umbria. I tell this story only because I wish to pay a personal tribute to John Durst, the founder of the Grapevine and one of Nature’s Gentlemen.

So, I shall be writing about the birds — I use the future continuous because that’s what Nick Jackman told me he expects — just like my bank manager. But there’s much more to Nature than the Birds — what about the Bees, the Flowers, the Mammals, the Insects, the Butterflies and the Reptiles for example? There are even the Human Beings. It’s a wide field, so will all the talented amateur beeologists, botanists, zoologists, entomologists, lepidopderists, herpetologists and moral philosophers out there on the Grapevine kindly make themselves known to the Editor.

A true—life anecdote: I once asked a friend, who was Professor of Entomology at the University of P-----a, "What’s the scientific name of that wasp that’s sitting on your hand and about to sting you?" He replied: "I don’t know, my field is microscopic fruit wasps…AAAGGHHH!"

Birds: - the great thing about living in Umbria if you were a dead keen nine year old amateur ornithologist living in Kent 50 years ago is that what were undreamt of rarities then are daily occurrences now… how about HOOPOES, or RED BACKED SHRIKES???

In October the Redstarts moved in to take over the vacant Swallow nests as comfy roosting sites for the winter nights. The word "start" is, I think, Anglo-Saxon for "tail" - certainly the bright orange —red ring around the tail of these Robin—like birds is a give-away for identification. They are the same size as robins, and move the same way — lots of bobbing up and down and tail-flicking. The book says they are resident, ie. breeding, all over Italy, but I’ve never had time to go looking for them in the woods and scrubland where they must spend the spring and summer. "Swarm" is too strong a word , but suddenly lots of them appear around houses and farm buildings, along with their close cousins the robins. The male of the "common" Redstart is the most spectacular, with a strongly-defined white eyebrow, black throat and chestnut breast. I have occasionally seen the rarer Black Redstart — no white or chestnut, just all black right down the front. They are relatively unafraid of humans — particularly quiet, still and listening humans — if you have a window-sill out of range of jumping cats, try spreading some breadcrumbs and you may well enjoy a close encounter.

If, as I am sure is the case, there are many keen bird-watchers on the Grapevine, there are any number of interesting projects to get started. For example: a check-list of all the species seen, outings to Trasimeno or Alviano to see the over-wintering duck and geese, participation in scientific/statistical studies on bird populations, photography, lobbying to have Chaffinches declared a non- shootable species, joining LIPU (the Italian equivalent of the RSPB) or just plain twitching!

A Little Owl has just told me —"KEEEEWICK" --- that it’s time to shut up and go to bed!