A Flycatcher's Choice On the walls of a cottage well
decked with the climbing plants they love it has been the habit of a flycatcher to build year after year. The selection of the place was regarded as a family tradition. Then, to the grief of the cottagers the tradition was broken. For two years the garden (which is beautiful and very cottagy withal) has had no tree-creepers. It was feared that a third barren year was in prospect, but the birds were only belated. They came late (even for this bird, which is one of the latest migrants), and they nested, not only in the same climber but in the same nest. The two-year-old home was actually renovated and is now full of youngsters. The event is entirely new in my experience. Some of the bigger birds, of course (notably raven and buzzard) use one nest over a long period. One pair of ravens known to me keep two nests close together and use each in alternate years. Small birds behave differently ; and for a bird• with so de- structible a nest as a flycatcher's to return to so old a structure is more than unusual. Perhaps their lateness made them feel in a hurry.
Previous page
