Spring arrival: wild goats and wheatears
Dave Sexton, the highly popular RSPB officer for Mull, who deserves the Freedom of the Island for all the business he helps bring to it, and Morvern ornithologist and photographer Alan Kennedy – whose wonderful and unique picture of an adult otter dragging a rabbit back to its young delighted so many followers on Facebook recently – record that the first wheatears of the year have arrived, albeit rather later than usual according to old records.
Wheatears belong to the genus Oenanthe. They are passerine birds, that is birds which have feet specialised for grasping branches and similar structures, with the first toe facing backwards. They were formerly considered to be members of the thrush family, but are now more commonly placed in the flycatcher group.
The name wheatear is not derived from wheat or any sense of ear, but is a 16th-century linguistic corruption of white and arse, referring to the prominent white rump found in most species.
Henry Davenport Graham, in his Birds of Iona and Mull (1890) tells us that in his youth wheatears were in great demand around Beachy Head in Essex for the table, where they were served up as ortolans [a small songbird considered by the French as a delicacy. Caught before they flew south for the winter, they were force fed then drowned in a cask of Armagnac brandy prior to being dished up on fried vine leaves]. It seems large numbers of them were captured in cleverly constructed turf traps and sold in the local markets for a shilling a dozen.
Oenanthe is also the name of a plant genus, the water dropworts, and is derived from the Greek oenos wine and anthos flower. In the case of the plant genus, it refers to the wine-like scent of the flowers. In the case of the wheatear, it signifies the Northern wheatear’s return to Greece in the spring just as the grapevines blossom. In Gaelic they were known as crithneachan and in English, underground jobbler.
A good deal of superstition used to surround wheatears. If they were seen for the first time perching on a stone, the weather would be stormy and calm if spotted on a sod. In some parts of the Highlands and islands they were called Fear na Feill Padruig, bird of the Feast of St Patrick because they usually appeared on 17th
March – the traditional death date of the saint. According to Alexander Carmichael (1832-1912), the renowned Gaelic folklorist and collector from Lismore, wheatears were known as siant or sained and were thought to hibernate during winter.
In support of this extraordinary theory, he recorded that a Donald MacMurdoch from Bailemeadhonach in Islay told him that he and his sons were clearing away an old turf-wall one winter when they came across great numbers of them inside it. The birds were stiff and cold and appeared to be dead. The boys took some home and laid them on the floor beside a fire and before long they began to show signs of life, flap their wings and fly about.
Carmichael recorded a similar story in Glencreran in Appin from Donald MacColl the local foxhunter. It appears that in the early 1800s a long stretch of undermined bank fell down on a nearby road. Among the debris of roots, moss and gravel there were masses of wheatears, ap
parently dead. There had been a long spell of frost, followed by a sudden thaw and above average heat. The birds exposed to this rise in temperature showed signs of life. Some children took a number of the dormant birds home and brought them to life in front of fires. This was such an unusual phenomenon that people came from near and far to see it. Carmichael recorded that these informants were highly intelligent and very observant naturalists.
So, who knows? Other, earlier than usual, spring arrivals include several immature great northern divers feeding off the rocky shores between Kingairloch and Kilmalieu.
Nearby, wild goat kids have been foraging among the seaweed with their siblings since at least late January. Their numbers this year appear to be slightly down both here and on the west coast of Jura. Perhaps the continuous rain is responsible. Doubtless there will be further mortalities among them and the already sadly depleted red deer numbers by over-shooting, as the new grass appears.
In the plant world primroses are well ahead particularly noticeable among the damp moss-covered cliffs along Loch Sunart-side between Achleac and Kinlochsunart and on the shores of Loch Aline. For weeks ditches and pools as high as 1,100ft above sea level among the Morvern hills have been overflowing with frogspawn which, in time, will provide tasty morsels for travelling otters and wandering herons.