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Frosty fieldfares |
23.11.2002 |
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Ó
Jane Burton |
A visit from a flock of fieldfares is a
cheerful occasion. They make a delightful sight as they come
bounding across the fields under a pale clear sky, chuckling
to each other as they go. It is sometimes said that
fieldfares are named after their nomadic habit – that they
'fare' or travel over the fields. I can't think why, because
there are several other birds that fare over fields. Another
theory, with rather more etymological support, is that the
fieldfare is the 'grey piglet' or fealu fearh in Old
English, which became Chaucer's 'frosty feldefares'. It
sound unlikely, but this name does combine the grey plumage
and (with a little imagination) grunting calls. The Welsh
have the same idea and call it socen lwyd, the 'grey pig'.
A 17th century naturalist
wrote that fieldfares ' keep a kind of watch, to remark and
announce the appearance of danger. On our approaching a tree
that is covered with them, they continue fearless, till one
at the extremity of the bush, rising on his wings, gives a
loud and peculiar note of alarm; when they all immediately
fly, except one other, who continues till the person
approaches still nearer, to certify as it were, the reality
of the danger, and then he also flies off.' It sounds too
whimsical to be true but I have noticed that flocks of
birds, not just fieldfares, sometimes fly off and leave a
straggler or two who do seem reluctant to move. Hesitation
in joining the general exodus must be 'the reality of the
danger' because these slowcoaches are the obvious targets
for a hawk.
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