It is well over a year now since we travelled to both Norway and the UK. At the time I rather bombarded my readers with pictures of some of the places and interesting things we had seen. It was while I was looking through my pictures today that it struck me how ‘familiar’ the birds we saw were, even though they do not occur here.I think everyone knows about swans, yet I loved seeing this one with two cygnets in Victoria Park, Glasgow:
Seeing ths elegant bird in the water made it ‘real’ for me – a picture book bird come to life.
The rest of the birds in this piece were photographed in Norway. The first is a blackbird collecting grubs on a lawn to take to its nest:
Apart from the fact that its features are very similar to the olive thrushes that visit our garden, we learned about the Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie from a very early age. I have subsequently read that that particular poem is about King Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, with the blackbirds representing the choirs of the monasteries who baked a pie to win favour with the king. I need to delve more deeply into the dark side of it.
On a much lighter note is the delightful robin that has adorned Christmas cards since who knows when, so of course it was instantly recognisable:
So was the wagtail (not sure which this one is – thank you, Mr Tootlepedal, for identifying it as a Pied Wagtail) for wagtails look similar wherever they are. Seeing them always makes me think of John Clare’s lovely poem, Little Trotty Wagtail, in which he begins by descrbing the bird as:
Little trotty wagtail, he went in the rain,
And tittering, tottering sideways he ne’er got straight again.
He stooped to get a worm, and looked up to catch a fly,
And then he flew away ere his feathers they were dry.
Blue tits are familiar too from Christmas and greeting cards over the years and so I was thrilled to be able to watch them visiting the feeders in my son’s garden daily whilst I was in Norway:
Now, why did I instantly recognise a magpie when I first set eyes on one? I am not sure. Perhaps it was familiar through stories I had read as a child.
Anyhow, on one hand it felt strange to be so familiar with birds that are not ‘our’ familiar birds. Seeing these birds in the flesh felt like visiting old friends. Of course, what is also true, is that I have seen a number of these birds featured in various blogs!
Note: If anyone has missed my monthly garden birds … I have my July list; I even have some photographs … the problem with having purchased a new laptop is working out how to process the photographs in a satisfactory manner! I will get there.
Something Over Tea 