The Accipiter - Online magazine from The Hawk Conservancy Trust

Meadow Muses - May 2007


Monica	Brigid

Monica Johnson and Brigid Campbell look at the ever-changing flora and fauna in our beautiful wildflower meadow which is named in memory of Reg Smith, founder of the Hawk Conservancy Trust.

Meet The Crows – May 2007


Cowslip Meadow	Ground Ivy	Garlic Mustard

On our walk round Reg’s Meadow in the last week of April we found everything in the plant world gearing up for the season. In the recent warm sunshine the Cowslips were at their glowing best, with the whole of the centre of the meadow ablaze with yellow. The greenery of most of the usual suspects is coming up among the cowslips, while in the hedgerows quite a lot of flowers are already open and flower buds are showing on others.

Fly on Hawthorn

There is a superb crop of Ground Ivy this spring, its purple flowers in large patches all along the hedges. Alongside these are the White Deadnettle and Garlic Mustard (also known as Jack-by-the-Hedge). Higher in the hedges there are Apple and Wild Cherry (also called Gean) in flower and the Hawthorn blossom is just opening. Insects are beginning to appear, with a few bees feeding among the cowslips, an occasional butterfly and flies attracted to the newly-opened hawthorn flowers. Watch out for an explosion of growth as you walk around the meadow during May.

Meet the crows

Everybody knows those big black birds so common in the countryside, and probably knows the names rook, crow and raven. But who’s who? And how do you know?

The crows are a group of birds within the huge order called Passerines – all the perching birds from tiny wrens to large ravens. They are found in almost all parts of the world, and are known for their exceptional intelligence. They eat almost anything, but are largely meat-eaters. Most of the Crow family – at least the biggest – are black, with variable amounts of white and grey. However, in many parts of the world there are some very colourful crows, especially the jays and magpies.

Hooded Crow*

Chough*

In Britain we have eight members of the crow family, but you will only see six of them in Hampshire. The two you will not see are the Red-billed Chough, which is confined to the coasts of south Wales and western Ireland, with a few in Cornwall and Dorset, and the Hooded Crow, grey and black, mainly found in Scotland. Both are quite distinctive birds, the Chough with its bright red beak and legs and the Hooded Crow with its mixture of grey and black plumage.

Magpie Jay*

Two of our crows are easy. Everybody knows the Magpie, with its long tail and black and white plumage. Magpies like open country with plenty of trees, hedgerows, areas of scrub and copses. The raucous Jay, with its pink, blue, black and white feathers, is unlike any other British bird, but is more likely to be heard than seen, as it is a very wary bird. It is always found near trees, mainly in woodland but also in orchards, gardens and parks.

That leaves the four black ones, which are the most difficult to tell apart.


Young Rook	Adult Rook Beak

Carrion Crow	Carrion Crow silhouette

Rooks and Carrion Crows are the really difficult ones. Both are common, the same size, and black. Rooks nest colonially in trees and are farmland birds. Crows nest in pairs, in trees and on rocks, and are found everywhere including cities. Rooks are partly vegetarian and also eat a lot of insect pests: crows are carrion-eaters and killers too. The rook has a steeper forehead, and a more conical beak,a greyish-white patch on its face, and loose feathering round its legs. The crow has a flattened head shape, straight bill, is all black and has close feathers. The rook seen above on the television aerial is a young bird, which has not yet developed the brighter greyish-white facial patch, while the second rook has the fully-developed patch. If all else fails you can revert to the old saying, which compares the more solitary crows to the gregarious rooks – if you see a rook on its own it is probably a crow and if you see a lot of crows together they are probably rooks!

Jackdaws

Jackdaws are pigeon sized, with grey napes, white eyes and rather short bills. They nest in trees but also in chimneys, and have a bright “chack!” call, which gives them their name. In flight their wing tips look pointed, not fingered like rooks and crows. This year a pair of jackdaws has been competing with the kestrels for occupancy of the box near the hides in the meadow. The box has changed hands a number of times in recent weeks and we wait with interest to see which pair will finally win!

Raven

Ravens used to be birds of the wilds but are increasingly breeding in Hampshire. The giant of the family, it’s as big as a buzzard, with a long head, diamond-shaped tail, and rather long, narrow wings for a crow. They do sometimes turn up at the Hawk Conservancy, often recognised by their deep croaking calls. Some members will remember our own pair of ravens, which lived alongside the picnic area, in the aviary now occupied by Duffy.

Featured Plant – Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

Hawthorn Flower Buds

Hawthorn is a native British tree, a member of the Rose family, also found throughout Europe, North Africa and Western Asia. It is common in open habitats such as hedgerows, woodland edge and downland, but does not like heavy shade. It is most often seen in hedgerows as a shrub but can grow up to eight or twelve metres if left to develop into a tree. It is probably the most commonly seen small tree in Britain, as it has been planted in many thousands of miles of hedges, where it grows quickly to form a good, stock-proof barrier. Leaves appear during March and early April and are a bright, glossy green, with variable shapes of three, five or seven lobes. Flowers appear from late April to mid-May, depending on how warm the weather has been, and the small, red fruits, or Haws, ripen from around September and remain well into the winter, gradually darkening to maroon.

There are a whole host of alternative names, including Bread-and-Cheese Tree, The Gentle Bush (Ireland), Hagthorn, May, Mayflower, Maythorn, Mother-die, Quickset, Quickthorn, Thorn-bush and Whitethorn, and the fruits have been given names such as Awes, Asogs, Azzies, Aglets, Agags, Arzy-garzies, Boojuns and Hoppety-haws. (Hawthorn is the only British plant named for the month in which it flowers, in the alternative name of May).

The name Crataegus comes from the Greek word kratos meaning “strong” and monogyna means “one pistil” or “one ovary”. The common name Hawthorn comes from the Anglo-Saxon Hagathorn where haga means “hedge”.

Hawthorn Flowers

Hawthorn has been a very significant tree in folklore over many centuries, both in Britain and in the other areas where it grows. It was originally believed to be unlucky to cut or damage trees, which would incur the wrath, sometimes fatally, of their supernatural guardians. Goddess-centred worship took place in sacred groves of hawthorn, planted in circles and the site of Westminster Abbey was once called Thorney Island, after a sacred stand of thorn trees which grew there. In ancient Europe it was thought to be a plant of protection or luck, and the Romans attached sprigs to the cradles of newborn infants to shield them from sickness or evil spells. Guests at weddings in ancient Athens each carried a hawthorn sprig to bring happiness and prosperity to the bridal couple. In Burgundy, sick children were taken to hawthorn bushes, as it was believed that prayers said there would ascend to heaven better in the company of the fragrance of the flowers. In Algeria, the Kabyle women believed that use of the shrub would transform the mood of their husbands so that they would treat their wives better!

In Christian legend it was said that Christ’s crown of thorns was made from hawthorn and that the Robin got its red breast by pecking off a thorn from the crown and getting Christ’s blood on its feathers. In Glastonbury there was a hawthorn bush on a hill overlooking the Tor, said to have been brought to England by Joseph of Arimathea, uncle of the Virgin Mary, whose staff took root and grew there. This tree is said to flower twice a year, once in May and again at Christmas.

Hawthorns were planted near houses to protect them from lightning, as it was believed that lightning would never strike them. The blossoms were used in garlands in connection with all kinds of May Day ceremonies and traditions and flowering branches were set in the ground outside houses during the celebrations, but it was thought very unlucky to bring the flowers into the house, as their smell was likened to rotting corpses, especially reminiscent of the Black Death - to take the flowers inside would bring illness and death. (This was particularly true of the Woodland (or Midland) Hawthorn, Crataegus laevigata, which has much stronger-smelling flowers).

Haws

Medicinal uses of Hawthorn are mostly centred around the heart, blood pressure and circulation and it is considered by herbalists to be a very valuable plant. It contains flavonoids, which gently widen the blood vessels of the heart and procyanides, which are said to slow the heartbeat. It is made into tinctures, infusions and extracts and has no known side effects. It has been used as a mild sedative for nervous conditions, in poultices of pulped leaves for drawing out thorns and splinters and in China and France it has also been used to treat indigestion and diarrhoea. Combined with Ginkgo it is said to enhance poor memory by improving the blood supply to the brain.

Various parts of the plant have culinary uses. The fresh young leaves were known as Bread-and-Cheese and were picked and eaten from the bush or used in salads. Young leaves were also dried and used as a herbal tea or mixed with imported tea to bulk it out in the days when this was an expensive luxury. The flowers are edible and were used in various puddings, while the berries were eaten raw as a rather astringent tonic, or made into liqueurs and wines. The haws can also be dried and ground to be mixed with flour for bread or cake making.

Hawthorn wood is close-grained and very hard, so it is good for carving. The diameter of the trunk is generally too small for it to have been much use as a timber tree, the wood most often being used to make smaller domestic items such as combs, boxes and tool handles. It is a very good fuel, making the hottest wood fire known. Hawthorn charcoal was said to have burned hot enough to melt pig-iron without a blast furnace, and faggots of hedge trimmings were widely used to light bread ovens.

There is a lot more information about Hawthorn and its history in “Flora Brittanica” by Richard Mabey, as well as on the Internet, for further reading.

*Chough, Jay and Hooded Crow photographs are by John Devries and are used with permission