 |
raynevillage.info |  |
 |
| HOME | < LAST MONTH | NEXT MONTH > | RETURN TO WILDLIFE | FEEDBACK |
Country Matters April 2004
Country Matters - April 2004 After last month when I reported the large number of pheasants feeding in our garden many who have known me from my younger days were more than a little surprised. As when I was only six or seven I used to trap and later moved on to a catapult, all for one purpose to kill various birds and animals to cook. I must admit I still like to eat pheasant as Syl has a very good recipe that keeps the meat tender and moist, but our garden birds are safe, they will never end up on my plate. Though they have been threatened with the freezer on numerous occasions when they have dug up my recently sown peas or eaten off newly emerged seedlings but it is not me they need to fear but the many other perils in their life.I have decided to recount the life and social history of the Goulds Farm pheasants during 2003 but first we must go back to 2002. Cock of the Rock (CR) had been the dominant cock at the end of 2002. He had taken over from Half Ring (HR). HR was a large bird with five hens; he had held the garden territory for the previous season and was probably in his fourth year but he had had a series of skirmishes with a cock in a neighbouring territory called Smart Boy (SB) who had no hens. These fights had become more frequent and lasted for longer periods in some cases an hour or more. It was clear that they were evenly matched and that one of the birds would eventually have to give way. Then one morning when I went to feed the pheasants they had all gone including the two cocks. Only one hen returned that evening and then two days later we discovered the reason for the complete breakdown in our pheasants social order. The bodies of the two cocks were found in the garden, obviously having fought to the death.
Most game shoots end the season with a cock shoot to reduce their numbers and so prevent the kind of social upheaval that our hens had to endure. Most old keepers even used to trap or shoot cocks at the end of the shooting season and it was always said you could never have too few cocks. A moral for human males!
CR was a scrawny bird with most of his tail feathers missing, he had been on the edge of HRs territory during 2002 and HR’s demise gave him his chance. His hormones must have increased when he stepped into HR’s shoes, as his feathers immediately started to glisten as he puffed them out and his wattles became a brighter red making him look a completely different bird. The five hens gradually returned over the next seven days or so. But the 2002 season finished with our pheasants producing only 3 young between them. No doubt due to the long running fight for dominance by the cocks.
We started the 2002/03 winter with nine hens and CR. But by spring 2003 two hens had fallen to a fox that had learnt to wait for the birds to come down from roost in the morning before grabbing one and making off. After this the pheasants learnt to stay on their perch until I came out to feed them. Then they would all descend within minutes to have their morning feed. Years ago when gamekeepers had more time they always hand fed their birds down from roost at first light and again in the evening before they returned to roost. This not only kept the birds from straying but also gave them some protection from predators. Unfortunately as dawn got earlier I was not always in the garden when the pheasants came down so the fox had managed to take the two hens.
CR was young and inexperienced when it came to courting the ladies. He had the right technique of showing off, leaning to one side extending one wing partially, fluffed out feathers and running towards a female in a long curve. But he never seemed to know when to stop, so the hens soon tired of his antics and used fly up into a tree or disappear under a hedge. But despite this he did seem to consummate his relationship with most of them. The hens though, like the females of many species liked to hedge their bets when it came to finding the best gene mix for their offspring. Other males without a territory rather than challenge CR directly used to rush in and mate with the hens who seemed only too willing to oblige. Poor CR showed his inexperience by always being in the wrong place when these secret liaisons happened.
I must now diverge again as I said CR managed to be successful with most of his hens but one completely baffled him. In her first year in the garden she had a small patch of feathers on her breast the colour of a cock bird. The second year (2002) the coloured feathers covered her whole breast and we never saw her mate with any cock bird. Then in 2003 all her feathers were the colour of a cock with moderately long tail feathers. In spring her hormones like those of a cock must also have changed as her colour brightened and she had red patches either side of her head. She did not have the head tufts of a cock but from a distance appeared to be one. Poor CR was in a dilemma as one minute he would be chasing the ‘hen’ away then he would try and court her. It is interesting to speculate how does a cock bird recognise the opposite sex, is it her pretty feathers or her shape or some other unseen attraction. I will not diverge further and discuss the problems for human males in similar circumstances. The hen in question is still with us in her fourth season but only her breast has a male’s colouration in 2004. A sign of old age?
So CR had four functional females, one nested in rough grass, which we deliberately leave for insects and certain plants, but this also attracts feeding foxes and badgers. One day the obvious happened and there was only a patch of feathers to be found, even the eggs had all disappeared down someone’s throat. Unfortunately 2003 had a very wet spring and early summer, pheasants have to incubate their eggs for 28 days and like many ground nesters they eventually got tired of getting soaked every day and ‘lifted off’ their nests. This left one hen whose nest was near the house behind a net that had blown into a corner between two walls. As it turned out this was an ideal place as it was partly protected from the weather and being near the house slightly safer from predators. It hatched nine chicks that immediately got entangled in the net and when I tried to release them the mother flew at me. This was a good sign that the mother would try and protect her young. She retreated to the edge of the garden and after five days still had her nine chicks. Then the next day there was only four patches of feathers from an adult hen pheasant. A fox had probably found her and she had tried the broken wing routine to draw the predator away from her chicks. In doing this the pheasant hangs one wing down as if it is broken and then as one approaches it flies off low for about 10 to 15m before landing. It then repeats this drawing the danger further away. I remember as a small boy having fallen for this trick to the amusement of watching adults. But this time it had not been successful as the fox must have managed to grab a mouthful of feathers each time she landed hence the well spaced feather patches. Having dealt with the adult the fox would have then found the chicks calling for their mother.
So 2003 finished with CR not having passed on any of his genes to a following generation unless he also trespassed on a neighbouring territory for a dalliance with another harem. But in 2004 he is still in charge of four hens and our mixed sex pheasant. He has chased off several wandering males already and if he keeps his position he may be lucky this season though our past experience has been that males usually only keep their dominant position for one year. All ground nesting birds must have a difficult time in Rayne because of habitat change and the high predator population.
Wildlife Reports for April 2004
Last month I wrote that I would soon be getting reports of fox cubs within the village. It took less than 24 hours from writing that comment when Martyn Phillips Brunwin Road, emailed that on 13th March a fox cub had run across his lawn and taken cover under a hedge. Ernest Sexton, Old Hall, saw his first swallow of the year on 27th March. These early arrivals never seem to stay long. Perhaps they are just checking their old nest sites are still present then look elsewhere for better feeding. The earliest arrivals to the UK are usually at the end of February on the south coast, these must be optimists or else they have got their dates mixed.Andrew Goodey reported that the Hooded Crow was still present along Queenborough Lane on the 6th March attracting several twitchers most days. He also said the Little Egret on Pods brook was still present on 25th March and a Hawfinch flew low over Station Road on the 28th. I have only one other record of the latter in Rayne and that was briefly in our garden in 1986. It has a very large neck, head and beak, which allows it to crack cherry stones with ease. It is slightly larger than a Bullfinch. Its predominant colour is a rusty brown and is usually found in woodland with beech, oak, ash and hornbeam, hence its rarity in Rayne. The books say it can exert 50 kg of pressure with its beak, I hope the researcher was not using his finger to measure the pressure. Andrew also saw a Barn Owl along Lubberhedges Lane, Stebbing that backs up Alan Stannard’s report from the edge of our parish earlier in the year.
Phil Monk, Smithfields, has two small ponds in his garden and on the 24th had a Grey Heron standing by one of them. They are the biggest fish thieves in the village and usually visit while it is still dark in the morning. As Phil saw it in daylight it had probably found a very good source of food in his ponds. They will take frogs, newts, sticklebacks and even carrion. They can fish a small pond out in one visit and any fish too large to swallow will be speared by their powerful pointed beak and left on the bank. They are not always welcome if you have large expensive Koi Carp in your pond. Phil also had a Sparrow Hawk bathing in the pond, jumping in and out of the water. Though small the ponds even attracted a pair of Mallard until a neighbouring cat took an interest in the mallard. He also had a male and female Spotted Woodpecker visiting the garden together which is unusual as the only time we have had both sexes in our garden has been when they have had young with them. This year it is nearly always the female that has been on our nuts. They can be heard drumming in most parts of the village at present. It is said that this is to attract a mate and to mark their territories. In our garden it is the female that is drumming, is this role reversal between the sexes or are there other reasons for the drumming. Any suggestions, please contact me.
At Goulds we had a Brambling under our bird feeders on 5th April but it was a brief visit. We also recorded one at the same time of year in 1998. This latest visitor was a male in summer plumage with a glossy blue-black head and nape, black bill and reddish-yellow throat and breast, a very smart looking bird. One morning on opening our back door there was a very strong stench of fox. I have already written that when we were on holiday a fox had marked out his territory near our door with his droppings. This time he had urinated on our doorstep no doubt considering that his territory included the entire garden and that we should remain confined to the house. On opening the door we let the smell into the house and it was some time before with the windows open we had got rid of it.
A line was missing from Alan Stannard’s report last month, which left the text suggesting that badgers were eating tree shoots, it should have been Muntjac deer. The badgers were crossing the road at Mounts Farm.
To Top of Page
For corrections or changes, please email :-