Vol.22 No. 14
24^th April 1999

Da Week dat's awa
THE FASCINATION OF BIRDS. 2. Behaviour
The Place Names of Fair Isle No. 8
Maavi's Tongue

Interview with Rachel Jane Ross - Smith
Age 12 Born 4/1/87

Where do you live?
I have 2 houses. I at Taft and the other at Burkle.

Da Week dat's awa

For us this week began on Friday 16th; truly a day to remember, with the early phone call from Mairi - a bubbling over Mairi, with the wonderful news - 'We have a peerie lass.'

Took us right back to a lovely summer night, August 19th,'69, when Mairi's dad gave us the same news -We have a peerie lass.'

Since then our family tree has grown and flourished, with every peerie lass and boy bringing their own joy. We must be among the most fortunate people in the world.

Hannah came over for the day on Saturday, which is always a pleasure. Since our old 'Esse'bit the dust, I am having to do all the cooking and baking on the gas stove. Who said' You can't teach an old dog new tricks'?

With Hannah to help, we managed scones and cherry cake!! The installation of a new heating system has given our kitchen a complete face lift. It looks good.

While the workmen were in, I took a holiday in the Far East, at a place called 'Busta'. Not too many Oriental artifacts, but excellent service and cuisine! Most enjoyable.

On Sunday we saw first violets, first lamb on the hill, the welcome chacks and the unwelcome bonxies. All signs of spring; and on Monday we saw our travellers return from various meetings and visits. Anne, Stewart, Emma and Harry were on the afternoon plane, and all had seen baby Abby - 'she's lovely, she's beautiful, just perfect' etc.; and her proud grand-dad had photos to prove it.

We missed the future planning meeting about Fair Isle, as we were planning the future of a yow and her new born twins, who were much too near the 'edge' to have any future! Mission accomplished safely, and without any distress to us or the sheep.

Midweek the clear sunny weather was followed by strong easterlies with rain and fog, but now it is Friday again, and the sunshine is back.

As I have been accused of/credited with knowing a verse about simply everything, here is todays:
'The mists have rolled in splendour

From the beauty of the hills....' (right Steven?!)
Annie.

THE FASCINATION OF BIRDS. 2. Behaviour

On the 10th June 1948 I found myself established in a small tent pitched under some dead trees on the edge of an area of marsh, together with the minimum of essentials to make camping life possible. Fortunately I had a stimulating companion in the person of Philip Brown who, among other things, insisted on my getting up every morning at 4.a.m.

Philip had been appointed Director of Watchers and Sanctuaries for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds after the War and had set about giving bird protection a more proactive emphasis and one offering the membership greater involvement. Thus an announcement appeared in the January 1948 issue of Bird Notes of a new voluntary watchers scheme. I applied; I was interviewed and accepted; and as it turned out I was the first person on the scheme which is still in operation. Moreover at the interview was let into the secret, not to be divulged to anyone else, that I was to be sent to Minsmere in Suffolk to assist in protecting the nesting sites of any returning avocets.

This was to bring a completely new aspect into my fascination with birds. Protection proved not to be very arduous on this or subsequent occasions. But here for a whole fortnight was the chance not only to identify birds new to me but also to study, admittedly in a very amateurish way, the behaviour of one particular species.

Altogether I enjoyed four visits to Minsmere and to Havergate Island and I also had a spell of watching on the Orfordness shingle beach. I learnt much about the behaviour of avocets. Moreover in April 1948 I was almost certainly one of the first persons to witness avocets on their spring-time return to Britain. It is therefore perhaps worth quoting from my notes written at the time: "A single bird seen on the 14th; 8 birds on the 15th; numbers then fluctuated until the end of the period. They were heard calling at all times of the day and night. They allowed comparatively near approach. They were often disturbed by crows and on one occasion six birds combined to drive one off. They were very frightened of the marsh harriers They disdained the ducks, even jabbing at shelducks with their beaks." My experience with avocets whetted my appetite for further study of bird behaviour. Thus in the early 1960's I spent three watching periods with the ospreys on Speyside. This proved to be another wish fulfilled as years before my uncle had given me a book containing magnificent photographs of ospreys and other birds of prey which gave me the desire to see raptors in their native haunts.

Compared with Minsmere and Havergate the Speyside arrangements were sheer luxury. Thus there was a substantial timber hide from which to watch the osprey nest instead of lying on a wet grass bank and putting one's head over the top to view the avocets;

As with the avocets there were occasions of particular interest. In 1961 I was on watch on the 4th July, the day when the first young hatched that year. I wrote " during the afternoon and evening the hen became very restive, standing up, turning round, and looking down into the cup." On my say-so the news of the hatch was passed on to the BBC for broadcast. That this could be done was a welcome indication of the good work of the RSPB in interesting the public in rare birds. It was a welcome change from the secrecy with which it had been thought necessary to surround the re-emergence of avocets as a breeding species.

That announcement in Bird News thus led me to see birds in a new light, as creatures engaged in a struggle to keep alive and to rear offspring, each species in its own peculiar and particular way.. Looking back I am pleased that I was able to play a part, a very small part, in bird protection and often in the company of the pioneers The bird societies, in Switzerland and England which I joined as a schoolboy were small struggling societies kept going by a handful of enthusiasts. The RSPB had, I remember, miniscule offices in London. The Swiss scene was similar. My uncle Waiter, with a full-time teaching job, spent much of his spare time in supporting nature protection projects and in interesting others in the subject.

I admired him for his enthusiasm as I did that of Philip Brown. The latter had taken on a tough job in endeavouring to establish, with limited resources, a proactive protection role for the RSPB. There were other enthusiasts too who I met in Suffolk and on Speyside. At Havergate Island and on the Orfordness shingle beach Reg Partridge never failed to turn up with supplies and was surprisingly knowledgeable about birds. J.K.Stanford always had some tale to tell about birds overseas and a tot from his bottle was always welcome before retiring to my tent on the muddy patch at Havergate. Nor would I want to forget the ever helpful Gwen Davies in the RSPB office.

Equally helpful were R.C.Fursman on Speyside, and Speyside would not have been the same without Miss MacDonald and her boys. I am grateful to her for teaching the art of haymaking!  It was on Speyside too that I met George Waterston and Roy Dennis but that leads me to a later chapter.

Jack Keiser  9.3.99

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Last modified: March 16, 2010
Children's writing Copyright Fair Isle Primary School;  Maavi's Tongue Copyright Neil Thomson
and the rest (unless otherwise stated) Copyright Fair Isle Times 2001