Bird species have been allocated symbolic meanings through folklore, rhymes and fairytales: the Cuckoo as a metaphor for a con artist, Magpies linked to sorrow, joy,.
By Brian Morton Confinement changes us, bringing new challenges and interests as well as strictures. It’s a cliché, but worth repeating that since lockdown, we’ve become more attuned to our home environments, and to all the things we missed in the whirl of “normal” life. My father and grandfather contracted their passion for birds while stuck – different services, different wars – in military camps in Kent. An uncle, taken prisoner on the withdrawal to Dunkirk, spent the remainder of his war watching birds beyond the perimeter wire of his POW camp. He was denied binoculars until the day of liberation, when a fleeing guard passed on his. My grandfather, injured in an RFC training accident, lay immobile watching a black redstart, even then a relatively rare bird in Britain, gathering wisps of cotton wool and gauze to line its nest.