Thanks, L. I get the picture of these little dashers.
B
On 19/12/2013, at 10:27 PM, Lawrence Upton wrote:
> I take it likewise - I'm not a twitcher. But the chink chink sound,as you
> say; and the size; and look; would have done it. I have a feeling that it
> was black-headed,which I think makes it male. But this was many years ago
> and the event is a memory I can access only because of the poem. I was
> editing some verse from a quarter century recently, which played around
> with autobiography, and the memories came back as I chanted the words
> internally. I can - sort of - see Ogo Dour now. (The clifftop rather than
> the Ogo, cave, which is lower down), know where I was - sort of - and think
> that I remember that bird fly out. That part of the world, western side of
> The Lizard, near Predannack Airfield there are loads of them; so if you
> walk there,particularly away from the coastal path theyre always flying up.
> Trouble is,away from the coastal path it's marshy particularly because in
> the 1940s they dumped concrete for their airfield, apparently without
> thinking of drainage!! Fewer on the coastal path because there are so many
> noisy bipeds. I have a feeling they don't fly far day to day; but I noted
> this one because it could be read that it flew out into the wet granite
> greyness of sky and sea and thought “No way”; generally they go from one
> bush clump to another so it would have landed quickly anyway.
>
>
> Well, that's my story
>
>
>
> On 19 December 2013 04:43, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Stonechats new to me, L. Not the Siberian nor the African I take it. Liked
>> their dash. Did you hear a sound? Meant to be like two stones knocked
>> together apparently acc to Uncle Wiki.
>>
>> B
>>
>> Two weakly defined subspecies are currently accepted:[2]
>> Saxicola rubicola rubicola. In the south and east of its range, from
>> Denmark southwest to Spain and northern Morocco, east to Poland and
>> Ukraine, and southeast to Turkey.
>> Saxicola rubicola hibernans. Northwestern Europe in Atlantic coastal
>> areas, in southwestern Norway, Great Britain, Ireland and northwestern
>> France. Birds in coastalPortugal are also often listed as this
>> subspecies[2] but this is disputed.[3]
>> The two subspecies differ in colour intensity following Gloger's rule,
>> with S. r. rubicola paler and with larger white patches in the drier
>> European continental and mediterranean climates, and S. r. hibernans darker
>> brown with less white in the humid Atlantic oceanic climate. They
>> intergrade broadly where their ranges meet, from southeastern
>> England[4]south through France and Spain, and many individuals are not
>> identifiable to subspecies. Extreme examples of S. r. rubicola from the
>> driest southern areas of its range such as theAlgarve and Sicily are
>> particularly pale and with a large white rump, and can be very similar to
>> Siberian Stonechats in appearance.[3][5] nDNA microsatellite
>> fingerprintingreveals a very small degree of separation between the two
>> subspecies.[6]
>> In the past, the European Stonechat was generally considered conspecific
>> with theSiberian Stonechat and African Stonechat, lumped together as Common
>> Stonechat S. torquatus. A new review adding mtDNA cytochrome b sequence and
>> nuclear DNA microsatellite fingerprinting evidence strongly supports their
>> separation into distinct species.[2][6] Due to a misunderstanding of the
>> rules of Zoological nomenclature, for a short time the name S. torquatus
>> was erroneously used for the European Stonechat rather than the African
>> Stonechat.[6]
>> Together with the Siberian Stonechat and Canary Islands Stonechat it
>> constitutes eastern and western representatives of an Eurasian lineage; the
>> Asian and European populations separated during the Late Pliocene or Early
>> Pleistocene, roughly 1.5-2.5 mya, and Fuerteventura was colonised by
>> western European or northwest African birds somewhat later in the Early
>> Pleistocene, about 1-2 mya.[6]
>> The etymology of the English name derives from its call, sounding like two
>> stones knocked together. The scientific name Saxicola means "rock-dweller",
>> from Latin saxum, a rock +incola, dwelling in; and rubicola,
>> "bramble-dweller", from Latin Rubus, brambles + incola; the subspecies name
>> hibernans refers to Ireland (Latin, Hibernia).
>>
>>> On 18 Dec 2013, at 10:01 pm, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> white out at some distance
>>>
>>> grey-green nearer
>>>
>>> the stubble-below cliffs
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> a cliff top pool
>>>
>>> a temporary thing of rain
>>>
>>> wonderfully blustered
>>>
>>> we look in
>>>
>>> leaning away from the edge
>>>
>>> being pushed to
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> seeking life
>>>
>>> some dirt or something
>>>
>>> but there is none
>>>
>>> only the moiled clay soil
>>>
>>> at its base
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> a stonechat dashes
>>>
>>> from grasses out into sea sky
>>>
>>> returning sharply
>>>
>>
>
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