COUNTRY DIARY: Song thrush might look plain but boy can it hold a tune!
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Earlier this year the 200th anniversary of the appreciation that dinosaur fossils belong to extinct reptiles, was celebrated.
More recent fossil finds indicates the ancestors of birds to have been bipedal feathered dinosaurs.
Sandstones from Morayshire quarries have yielded remarkable fossils, including the extinct reptile Saltopus elginensis that it is suggested was an agile, insectivorous predator at the base of dinosaur lineages.
But for such ‘dinosauriforms’ we would have no dawn chorus to enjoy.
A distinctive element of our bird soundscape is provided by the aptly named Song thrush.
In the early twentieth century, the Song Thrush Turdus philomelos was more abundant than the Blackbird.
When the population declined by 54% Between 1970 and 2010 this thrush was red listed on the Birds of Conservation Concern In Britain but currently it is amber listed. Song thrushes have a typical three year life span
While their plumage helps them remain unobtrusive, names like ‘grive musicienne’ (French) and ‘singdrossel’ (German) indicate this is not so of their song. Scots names include Thristle, Throstle and, as in a well-known pastoral love song, the Mavis that Burns calls to the attention of his “dearie”
An early nester, egg laying can be in mid-April typically in a mud lined nest with young flying by 3rd May.
After hatching discarded egg shells of a stunning glossy sky blue lightly speckled with black or purple can be encountered well away from the nests.
While worms are favoured fare, song thrushes are renowned for their ability to crack snail shells and in times of drought or hard frost when worms are inaccessible this gives them an advantage compared to fellow worm-eaters like blackbirds.
Debris of broken snail shells by a stone often betrays where Song Thrushes have a stone anvil used to smash into snails.
Some autumn fruits can feature in their diet and in the ‘Birds of Badenoch and Strathspey’ Roy Dennis mentions small flocks taking advantage of Bird Cherries in August to early September
From DNA studies it has been found Song Thrushes are particularly close to the larger Mistle Thrush with which it can be confused.
The greyer Mistle Thrush’s noisy ‘tchrrr’ flight call, often shallowly undulating flight, and the tail’s whitish sides and corners, are useful features. The more strident and interrupted song of the Song Thrush, with repeated brief refrains, is also characteristic and differs from the more melodious flowing performances of the Mistle Thrush and Blackbird.
Born three years after Charles Darwin, one poet amongst those who have appreciated the April voice of Song Thrushes was Robert Browning.
While abroad (having eloped with his bride despite paternal disapproval), Browning wistfully recalled the “wise thrush” that “sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture!”
If poetry endures science can move apace. Currently, only 40 years after Scotland’s first dinosaur fossil footprint was discovered on Skye, across the world some 50 new dinosaurs are described each year.
