Bumbarrels

Now we are members of the Isolation Bird Club - Chris Packham and Megan broadcast on fb every weekday at 9.00 am. - I am trying to add a bit of value and comment (on fb).  I am not a birdwatcher - I can tell a robin from an eagle on a good day - but I love birds, as I love Jehovah's beautiful creation.  So I have been finding some lovely - and observant - poems about birds. And posting them.

And I found this paean to the Bumbarrel.  And posted it.

Bumbarrel is an old word for the Long-tailed Tit. And it, along with the bearded tit, are perhaps my favourite birds.  If you can have favourites.

And please note how exquisitely they make their nests.  Each one a little work of art, and a witness to the perfect work of the Grand Creator of us all.  And I love the way it ends, with the hedgerow being full of baby bumbarrels.

The Bumbarrel's Nest

by John Clare

The oddling bush close sheltered hedge new plashed

Of which springs early liking makes a guest

First with a shade of green though winter dashed

There full as soon bumbarrels make a nest

Of mosses grey with cobwebs closely tied

and warm and rich as feather bed within

With little hole on its contrary side

That pathway peepers may no knowledge win

Of what her little oval nest contains

Ten eggs and often twelve with dusts of red

Soft frittered and full soon the little lanes

Screen the young crowd and hear the twittring song

Of the old birds who call them to be fed

While down the hedge they hang and hide along

(John Clare, ‘Bumbarrel’s Nest’ (1832–7), 2003, p. 219)

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137030337_5

We continue in our isolation routine, watching the Channel come and go.  Its out at the moment and Col is off on his walk, along the beach.  You can go for miles when the tide is out.  I am about to attend our Zoom Meeting.

We have an extra meeting now - Field Service on Saturday morning - a morale boost for us, as we can no longer go door to door in the service.