Twenty-five degrees, read the dashboard thermometer as we drove west out of the city – what a day, of all days in this dysfunctional summer, to have had to spend indoors.
But west Cork was only an hour away, less if you consider it to begin at Kinsale. Soon, we would be cooling off in its Gulf Stream waters. But, by the time we got home, the weather had somewhat turned around.
It wasn’t inclement – it wasn’t raining. However, the chill in the breeze dampened the enthusiasm a tad. Dark clouds rolled in from the Atlantic, but sometimes the sun still broke through. We headed for the beach, a popular strand. However, there were no family parties, no pink and goose-pimpled teenagers in the sea. We sat in the car, considering the wisdom of exiting. Suddenly, a huge flock of house sparrows flew past. Holidaymakers, I thought. So large a flock could only be local sparrows on holiday.
As readers will know, sparrows on holiday sounds as silly as bears from Peru arriving at Paddington Station with suitcases and a fondness for marmalade, or baa-baa black sheep dictating the distribution of their assets in verse. Birds do not go on vacation, do they? Well, if annually leaving home for a few weeks in August constitutes holiday-making, house sparrows could be said to be doing just that. They are, after all, House sparrows, Passer domesticus; they do not normally leave home.
House sparrows rarely move more than a 100 metres from where they are born. If you have a flock in your garden or yard, cherish them. Born on the premises, they will be your neighbours all their lives. They can live more than 10 years and will always be close by, their fortunes inexorably interwoven with yours. They may be cheeky or chirpy or a damned nuisance when they nest over bedroom windows and wake one with raucous chatterings at dawn. But they will always be ‘your’ sparrows and you will always be ‘their’ hosts. Leading otherwise blameless lives, they dispose of pests and weed seeds, although sometimes shredding the crocuses. They are an increasingly threatened species as habitats are concreted-over for new building, or nesting holes are blocked up in newly-renovated eaves. In August, when the hay and corn ripens, they go ‘on holiday’. They fly as far as a mile away from home.
They do not return to the domestic patch at night, but gather in hedgerows, roosting with sparrows from other clans and tribes. Urban, suburban and farmyard sparrows join in chattering flocks and descend upon fields where cereals are ripening. There, they feast. The native garden or farmyard is, for once, silent, and the householder may sleep late if he is on holiday too.
Passer domesticus followed Man out of Africa. They have been with us as long as we have made shelters and cultivated crops. They were introduced to the Americas and spread widely. Years ago I made a trip around the globe, the northern hemisphere, and I noticed not only that I encountered sparrows everywhere I went, but that their plumage differed subtly from location to location. In my naivety, I thought I would photograph these differences and produce an Around the World with Sparrows illustrated book. However, I was already well on my way before the bright idea occurred and, besides, I couldn’t afford the film.
On the way home from the sea, we passed a buddleia bush in a corner lit by a burst of late sun. The air around and above was a haze of colour as butterflies in their dozens flitted over the purple flowers. Scarlet-and-black red admirals, gorgeous peacocks with the iridescent ‘eyes’ on their wings, bright, newly-hatched painted ladys and brilliant orange fritillaries all fluttered and fed on the so-called butterfly bush. N
I will put off news of the devastating effects of the green weed invading the coast of Brittany. I hope it is purely coincidental but Brittany, covering just 5% of the land area of France, produces 60% of French pork.
All such speculation may wait until October. It’s summer; let us enjoy.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, August 17, 2009
