Moses in the Reed Mace?

Over the years I have seen and / or photographed a good variety of rare or scarce birds feeding on or emerging from the familiar marginal plant Typha latifolia. With its impressive mahogany-brown seed heads, it has, for example, frequently attracted Penduline Tits: all five I've seen in the UK have been feeding on the seeds or the small grubs they contain.

Now I know I might be a bit anal about things like this, but let's just be clear: the plant in question is Greater Reed Mace, not Bulrush! Just because people have been calling it by the wrong name for a century doesn't make it right!

The origin of this misnomenclature is surprisingly easy to discover: it goes back to an illustration in the children's Bible that many of us were exposed to in Primary or Sunday School. The artist mistakenly used Reed Mace in his painting of 'Moses in the Bulrushes', because he wasn't aware that the 'reeds' mentioned in Exodus 2: 1 - 10 were certainly Papyrus: he also didn't know that Reed Mace and Bulrush are two entirely different water plants. I couldn't by any stretch of the imagination be described as a Christian, but I enjoy reading most of the World's sacred texts: here're the relevant verses from the Old Testament:

Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. She opened it and saw the baby.

Greater Reedmace

Bulrush

Papyrus

Moses in the Reedmace!

Hornet!

Although Linda and I are always very 'Hornet aware' because of the threat of Asian Hornets and the fact that our domestic species are not averse to a bit of honey, we both enjoy watching them on their regular visits to the garden.

Linda has a feeding station directly in front of her office window which she keeps topped up with seeds, fruit and fats to attract birds and butterflies. This delightful Hornet seemed to really enjoy the banana today - it stayed feeding for well over as hour!

Pectoral Sandpiper at Cley

Just a short video taken through the heat haze!

Pectoral Sandpiper at Cley and Ruddy Shelduck at Kelling Quags

Some days (particularly when the Norfolk roads are jammed with tourist traffic) it makes sense to pick a promising location and stick with it!

Today Norman, Brian and I started off at Cley Centre Hides, where Green, Wood and Common Sandpipers were everywhere: a juvenile Green was particularly confiding. A Spoonbill flew in and a Great White Egret flew backwards and forwards. The Centre was closed due to a power failure, so we walked round to Bishop's Hide. Still no sign of the recently present Pectoral Sandpiper, but we added a fine adult Yellow-legged Gull and more Sandpipers.

We decided on a move to Kelling, but I managed to persuade Norman and Brian to visit the centre hides once more: this time we were lucky: the Pec Sand was visible (somewhat distantly!) from Dauke's Hide.

After coffee at Kelling, we walked down to the Quags: almost immediately we realised that every Darter was a Red-veined! We saw literally dozens, including numerous pairs. Several Southern Hawkers and Emperors were tazzing up and down the path, too.

Almost the first bird we found on the pool was a fine orangey-brown Ruddy Shelduck, lounging around with a flock of Egyptian Geese. This striking bird is a hybrid (with Egyptian Goose), but I don't see why that precludes a European origin..

 

 

A perfect Summer for insectivorous plants

As you may recall, I have a growing collection of insectivorous plants, both in the garden and on my office window-sill. The wet, warm spells with intervening sunny periods has produced plenty of flying insects for them to trap and all of them have flourished. Every species has reproduced both vegetatively and sexually: the butterworts in particular have done really well.

When I bought the first (a Sarracenia pitcher plant) I wasn't optimistic about them surviving the winter, but as far as I know I haven't lost any in five years. Spectacular, intriguing and good at eliminating gnats from the office: you'd be surprised how easy they are to keep! I have five species of Pitcher Plant, four Sundews, two Butterworts and several Venus Flytraps.

Colonel Chuck Halt at Woodbridge...

Several people have e-mailed to ask about availability of tickets for this event (at which I'm also giving a talk) The easiest thing would seem to be to post a copy of the flyer:

Whoops, I did it again - again!

How could I refuse this delightful Tele copy (has the vintage three-roller bridge) for the price of a round of drinks? I've put slightly heavy strings on it (12s) and it has a really authentic 50s sound.
It's a bit 'dinged' but that's part of its charm!

Do you have a favourite wine?

Linda and I will have been married 25 years in November: it seems to have flashed by... Right from the start of our relationship we realised we shared a passion for France and everything French: the language, food, art, music and - above all - wine.

Our first trip over the Channel together was to St Omer, a place that is still dear to us both. But during the glorious years when you could collect tokens from the tabloids and travel to France for 50p (yes: really!) we visited France over one hundred times in just five years! We stayed in Boulogne, le Touquet, Berck and many other delightful locations and almost always enjoyed a bottle of Muscadet with dinner. Inexpensive, slightly acidic and full of gooseberry and greengage, this is still my favourite summer wine. Whenever I enjoy a glass it takes me back to happy evenings in bars and restaurants from Calais to the Somme: I'm reminded of fun-filled holidays with Linda, her Mum and Dad and dear friends Paul, Penny, Sue and Mark.

Heathlands Social Club refurbishment!

Every Thursday has, for over ten years, been the venue for many an excellent musical evening. The 'core musicians' who attend the majority of these jams are Lenny and Jane Turner, Chris & Jann Gray, ace bassist Colin Roberts, myself and, latterly, Garth Coupland. On some evenings in the past, over twenty others have come along: at times there has been such a large group that each singer might only have time for two or three numbers! Things have changed and it's most often just half a dozen of us: but that has an obvious advantage - we know each other's songs so well that we are playing at performance level most of the time. Terrific to hear Garth's virtuoso harmonica playing on L & J's country offerings, while I tend to handle the blues and rock. We all get on really well and it'll be sad when Chris and Jann move to Scotland in the near future.

Last night was a really great evening, with interpretations of songs by Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Clapton, Stones, Beatles, Dave Edmunds Quo and many others. Heathlands has been completely redecorated and remodelled: a terrific place to spend an evening!

Even more butterflies!

Today the warm breeze brought literally dozens of Painted Ladies to the garden: they covered the Buddleia all afternoon. Lots of Red Admirals and Peacocks, with just a few Meadow Browns, Small Tortoiseshells and the three regular species of white. Overhead the resident Buzzard patrolled the fields between Mill Road and Bonds Lane...