Dunnock

The dunnock (Prunella modularis) is one of the many "small brown birds". It acquired its commonly used name around 1475 (donek) and it had settled on the current spelling by 1824. Country names abounded often including the word "hedge", and it was called "hedge sparrow" for a couple of centuries. It stopped being grouped with sparrows when it was realised that it fitted the accentor family. In the UK its is a bird of both rural and built up-areas. This bird was on the massacred hedge of a small block of flats towards the end of May, singing its heart out.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Chiffchaff

There are several onomatopoeic bird names, that is to say, names based on the call of the species. Cuckoo is probably the best known but curlew, peewit (a country name for the lapwing), jackdaw and kittiwake immediately spring to mind. So too does chiffchaff, a small warbler, a harbinger of spring named for its call that for the past couple of weeks has accompanied our daily walks.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Robin red breast

click photo to enlarge
When I was young the robin (Erithacus rubecula) was often referred to as the "robin red breast". When I first heard this it struck me as odd because the robin's breast is clearly orange. I supposed that alliterative charm appealed more than colour accuracy. More importantly, however, is the fact that "orange" as a colour name didn't come into usage in Britain until the sixteenth century and prior to that date red was the nearest colour to orange. Interestingly one of the old names for the robin was the "ruddock", a word that also means red. This robin allowed a close approach, standing on the railings, probably hoping for some food from us.

 photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

The greylag

The greylag goose (Anser anser) is the species from which most farmyard geese species have been bred. Alongside the Canada goose it is the most familiar wild (semi-wild?) goose, often being found on town and city park ponds as well as on more remote stretches of water. The British population of this goose is augmented by a winter influx of many tens of thousands more. The "lag" part of the bird's name is of great antiquity and means "goose". Hence that word is technically superfluous when referring to the bird.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Mallards Pike, Forest of Dean

Mallards Pike in the Forest of Dean is a small lake with nearby parking, a cafe and a tree climbing facility. The name seems to reference the ducks most commonly seen on the water and a type of fish that lurks beneath the surface. But apparently this isn't so. Mallard in this instance is a corruption of the surname Maller, the person who owned not only land in the area in the 1950s but specifically, a turnpike road and toll house. Maller's turnpike, in time, became Mallards Pike.

 photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Sea Crow

The name of the bird we call the cormorant (Phalocrocorax carbo) is said to derive from C12 French then Latin (Corvus marinus) for sea crow. Looking at this big black bird one can imagine how that might have come about. Today the cormorant isn't a bird associated only with the sea, though many can be seen there; it is also equally at home on some inland rivers and lakes. The bird in the photograph was perched on a riverside alder tree at Ross on Wye. The white feathers on the neck and the white patch on its flanks indicate that it is an adult in breeding plumage.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Jackdaw

The first syllable of the name of the jackdaw (Corvus monedula) is onomatopoeic, being akin to the bird's call that is frequently transcribed as "tchack". The second syllable, "daw" is the old (at least fifteenth century) name for black, crow family members, especially the jackdaw, and also given on the basis of their "cawing" call. English church towers and spires, offering the cliff-like nesting sites favoured by jackdaws, are locations where the bird is often found. The jackdaw in the photograph was at the very top of a churchyard yew tree a few yards from the church tower.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Monstera deliciosa

The Swiss Cheese Plant (Monstera deliciosa) is a tropical plant widely grown as a houseplant in the northern hemisphere because it is very tolerant of our indoor conditions. Ours lives in the dining room in front of a roughly north facing window and so experiences hardly any direct sunlight and quite equable temperatures. It is flourishing to the point where, in a couple of years, it will need a new location if we are to keep it. Clearly the first part of the plant's name refers to the size that it can reach (c.30 metres) and it is is well named. But what about deliciosa? Does it taste of cheese? Apparently not. That refers to the holes in the leaves. The word, in fact, comes from the "fruit salad" taste of the fruits that it bears, and unfortunately our growing conditions are unlikely to be good enough for us to experience it.

photos © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Fleabane

The common English names for wild and garden flowers often derive from their appearance, for example cranesbill, which has a fruit capsule reminiscent of a crane's bill. Quite a few others, particularly herbs, medicinal or therapeutic plants, have names that reference their useful qualities. Today's photograph shows one such example. The Latin name for this daisy-like flower is Erigeron but in England it is widely known as Fleabane. It is a somewhat unnatractive name for such a charming and delicate flower and is thought to come from the belief that when dried it repelled fleas. I wouldn't like to test that theory.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Gadwall drake

The gadwall (Mareca streptera) is a subtly coloured, reasonably common duck. It can be easily picked out among other surface feeding ducks of similar size by the grey/brown/black/white combination of colours and particularly by the white speculum. It is first recorded by a similar name (gaddel) by Merrett in 1667. This is thought to be onomatopoeic, referring to its incessant chattering. Old regional names for the gadwall include the insulting ("bastard" - Sussex), the unimaginative ("grey duck" - The Fens) and the lazy ("sand wigeon" - Essex). This drake gadwall was standing in the shallows of The Serpentine in Hyde Park, London.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Grey wagtail

The white wagtail is grey, the pied wagtail is black and white, the yellow wagtail is yellow and the grey wagtail is yellow too. This confusing state of affairs grew up naturally, over the centuries, as common bird names and names settled on by ornithologists were codified. Thank heavens for the Latin names! This grey wagtail, at Cannop Ponds, Gloucestershire, with its bright yellow body and grey head and back, was flitting around restlessly, its tail constantly moving as if to underline its name. It spent a few slightly calmer moments on a dam-associated wheel and the sunlight allowed a reasonable shutter speed that almost arrested its movement.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

The blue tit renamed

When I became interested in birds at around the age of eleven their names were pretty much standardised after a few hundred years during which folk names with regional variations were supplanted and scientific names were agreed. Thus, the bird shown above was the blue tit (Parus caerulius). Beginning in the last quarter of the twentieth century that began to change as science applied its knowledge of DNA to individual birds. Today the blue tit is the Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caerulius) because (to quote Wikipedia) "in 2005, analysis of the mtDNA cytochrome b sequences of the Paridae indicated that Cyanistes was an early offshoot from the lineage of other tits, and more accurately regarded as a genus rather than a subgenus of Parus."

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900