Grimpo Nature Notes – November 2013 by Pete Lambert

He had heard the soft whoomp of the impact against the rear window and when I returned I found the stunned victim head down in a crack in the concrete. The wren was still dazed but alive, just.  Its fine clawed feet clung to my fingers and palm and I gently cupped it in my hands to prevent it falling whilst it recovered composure. We had an extended moment to admire the incredibly fine beak which is used to pick off small insects to sustain its eager and busy lifestyle. It stubby, cocked tail was laid crookedly across its chestnut back but steadily straightened as strength returned. We decided to pop the bird on the bird table but by now it seemed to like hanging onto our fingers, then suddenly a flurry of wing-beats and gone. As a child I remember being given a farthing with the image of a wren on the reverse, but why the wren. A little reading reveals that for over 2000 years the wren has featured in myth and legend. St. Stephen’s day [26th December] was and is notably celebrated by a Wren hunt particularly in Ireland and the Isle of Man. Live or dead wrens are the centre of elaborate rituals with songs and costumes. Over the latter part of the twentieth century the wren cult has declined though the plucky, and at times loud, bird has not, being found commonly in deep hedges and shrubs all over the UK. 

Like the most dynamic inch-worm ever the Stoat looped pell-mell across the Rednal Straight. Lithe, quick and aggressive, stoats eat voles and other small mammals. Stoats have slim bodies, chestnut brown above and white beneath, with a characteristic black tip to the tail.  



They nest in burrows or tree root tangles. Stoats remain widespread despite persecution including at times hunting with dogs. Young stoats stick together in playful groups and eventually disperse to take up their own hunting territories. Stoats can catch and kill rabbits despatching the victim with a deadly bite to the neck.  This attractive member of the mustelid family which includes weasels, tracks by scent and once on the trail is relentless and invariably successful. A stoat territory is about 50 acres [20 hectares] and having seen stoat like animals crossing in the same location over the years it is a fair chance that the territory bounds are drawn by the canal and include the mix of fields, hedges and wet woodland to the south.  In the north during the winter the stoats coat will turn white bar the tail which remains white. Less often now this white coat or ermine was used for ceremonial robes. I prefer my ermine alive and looping rapidly for cover. 

A slow seamless lowering of temperatures, shortened sunlight hours and a deciduous downfall of redundant leaves has softly marked the transition of the season. The garden feeding station has gradually grown busier and lights puncture the hedges as the foliage departs ground-ward. Brilliant Autumn light took   us out to take in a stunning view above Trevor taking in the Pontscyllte aqueduct, Dee crossing , north Shropshire plain and there far away on a smudged horizon The Wrekin. A short trek took us across rough upland moor , spikes of seed laden thistle were being raided by a 30 strong flock of goldfinches. Goldfinches have the most striking of colours, a tricolour face of scarlet, white and black, is set off by the golden flash on its wing. The collective noun for a flock of Goldfinches is a ‘charm’, a sixteenth century derivation from the meaning of charm as a ‘blended noise’. Certainly our whirling ‘charm’ was noisy enough. The bold colouring is reflected in some of the Shropshire names given, such as King Harry redcap or Spotted Dick.  Thistle, teasel and other tall seed heavy plants of neglected places are favoured by the goldfinch, a lover then of untidiness and I imagine staying our tidying impulse in garden and wider countryside will bring us with luck our own ‘charm’.

Wrap up now and head out for you own wildlife encounters, best wishes, Pete.