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| Brown Hares and Corn Buntings |
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Page 4 of 5 Telegraph wires and fence posts are not the most attractive features here, unlike the Tamarisk hedges and the traditional herring bone walls (some stones so weathered that they had melded together), but without them it would have been harder to see the buntings for they like to perch in prominent positions and like to sit on the wires. The male of a pair spent a great deal of time singing up there - a few tentative ‘chips’ followed by a descending trickle, much like clinking glass. Yellow legs, feet and lower mandible relieved the mellow brown and cream tones of his boldly streaked plumage. Thick creamy stripes and thin brown ones marked the sides of his throat, and he looked about constantly with large, dark eyes; eyes that, like most birds, and also like hares, are set high on the sides of the head to give good vertical and all round vision, for the fast detection of predators - Peregrines, Buzzards, Foxes, Stoats and Weasels - to name but a few. He was joined first by a House Sparrow, then a Meadow Pipit and a Greenfinch, all of them dwarfed by his large frame by varying degrees. His mate appeared now and then, to preen in the hedge below, where once she sat surrounded by gang of noisy young Starlings. The company seemed to bother him, but not her, and he flew down periodically, making weak attempts to dislodge them. They may have had a nest nearby, a late clutch of eggs perhaps, for they weren’t feeding young. Corn Buntings nest on the ground in grass or cereal crops. Traditionally this would be a safe place, but these days grass is most likely to be cut early for silage, destroying nests and chicks, but here there was plenty of rough grass left for a late hay cut, or there were the field margins, and these had enabled a small population to survive over the years. This is especially important because these birds are resident and will not move far, making colonization of a new area unlikely. That the grass was unsprayed was evident in the variety of wildflowers and herbs. Meadow Browns, bees, flies and many other insects were abundant, ensuring a plentiful supply to feed the chicks. Grain and seed are an adult Corn Buntings staple diet, but as with all small birds, the growing young must have insects for protein. |
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