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| Yellow Wagtail - one of the species encountered by Major Congreve |
Considering the terrible circumstances, it is remarkable that any of the soldier-birdwatchers who served in the 1914-18 war found any time to watch and record the birds that they saw. But in fact the ornithology of the area around the Somme for that time is extensive. One of those who contributed to research was Major William Maitland Congreve (183-1967) who, it should also be noted, was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery. Below are extracts from an article he wrote for the July 1918 edition of The Ibis, journal of the British Ornithologists' Union of which he was a member.
The River Somme for many miles from its mouth is canalised, but owing to the fact that it runs through a wide flat-bottomed valley it is unable to drain the surrounding meadows which are normally very marshy and intersected by reed and rush-grown irrigation ditches.
In many places in the valley there are large sheets of deep water, surrounded by swamps and osier plantations.
The sides of the valley are fairly-well wooded, and the numerous villages are surrounded by fine old orchards of apple and pear.
The higher ground above the valley is undulating and open, and highly cultivated with corn, sugar-beet, lucerne, etc.
There are few hedges except in the neighbourhood of villages, but there is a fair amount of cover for birds in the numerous small, and in places very large, woods which owing to the war have not been kept free of undergrowth in the usual methodical French
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The above is a rough description of the district in which I worked from March to early June of 1917.
During June and part of July, I soldiered in the neighbourhood of Peronne.
There the River Somme is a fairly fast clear stream, normally several hundreds of yards wide and much choked, except in the main channel, by dense reedbeds interspersed by sluggish channels overgrown by water-loving weeds.
The surrounding country is open and undulating.
There are numerous small woods, but villages, orchards, and cultivation are non-existent owing to the depredations of the Hun in the great retreat following the Battle of The Somme.
I had only odd hours in which to take notes of birds and nests, and did not waste any time on species which did not interest me except
that I made an occasional entry in my notebook about the arrival or departure of migrants.
Consequently, these notes are very incomplete, and will rely for their interest on the fact that they were taken in a theatre of war under
unusual conditions.
Except where Peronne is specifically mentioned, these notes refer to the river-mouth district only.
Carrion Crow
Common, and nesting in all the woods and spinneys. First nest with eggs found on 20 April. The eggs were slightly incubated. On that date numerous nests were being built, and the weather was anything but spring-like.
Hooded Crow
Numerous near the mouth of the river as late as 19 April.
Jackdaw
Common in church towers, as at Abbeville. Not met with in the country except when feeding, as there were few, if any, suitable nesting-sites.
Rook
Not so common as they are in England. Only two rookeries
met with.
Magpie.
Extremely common, and their nests are quite a feature of
the landscape.
Jay
Common, nesting in all the woods and spinneys. A nest
of six considerably incubated eggs in the top of an ivy-
grown pollarded willow on 20 May, and another with five
considerably incubated eggs on 10 June in an oak tree.
Starling
Not very common. Nesting in typical situations, especially old woodpeckers’ holes.
Golden Oriole
A fairly common species and easy to locate owing to its curious distance-carrying note. Every wood of any size at all had at least one pair nesting in it, and they were found occasionally in quite open spinneys. One nest, found near Peronne in June, was suspended at the end of a thin beech bough some 20 feet from the ground, in a small wood seamed with old German trenches and dug-outs. It was a puzzle to discover where the fine sheep’s-wool came from out of which the nest was constructed, for there are no civilians or, consequently, sheep for many square miles of that district. The mystery was solved by discovering several old sheep’s-wool mattresses lying about 300 yards from the nest, at the entrance of a
dug-out. These mattresses had doubtlessly been looted
from some Frenchman’s home during the Hun occupation.
Greenfinch
Not uncommon, but no nest was found.
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| Greenfinch - no nest found |
Hawfinch
Only one seen, and that was near St. Valéry on 10 May
and presumably breeding m the wood in which it was seen.
Goldfinch
Not uncommon in the orchards round the villages of Saigneville, Boismont, St. Valéry, etc. They are prized as cagebirds, as at home, for two pairs nesting in some pear-trees beside a farm-house were being most carefully preserved by the owners of the land.
House Sparrow
Common.
Tree Sparrow
Common, and breeding in the holes of apple and other trees. In the neighbourhood of Albert they positively swarmed last winter.
Chaffinch
A common breeding species.
Linnet
Fairly common, and breeding in gorse patches. The gorse appeared to have been completely killed by the hard frost of last January-February and never showed the least sign of flower or even green.
Corn Bunting
Common in both districts, but most so in the neighbourhood of the sea.
Yellowhammer
Common everywhere, and breeding in banks and gorse patches.
Cirl Bunting
Common, especially in the neighbourhood of villages, and breeding in grassy banks bordering lanes.
Reed Bunting
Not uncommon, and breeding in suitable situations in marshland.
Skylark
A common breeding species.
Crested Lark
Common, particularly on the sea-coast and round the outskirts of Abbeville; also everywhere in the Peronne district.
White Wagtail
A pair here and there.
Pied Wagtail
Common in early spring. Not certain to be breeding, though undoubted specimens of this species were seen now and again in May, but there never happened to be time or opportunity for investigation.
Yellow Wagtail
A few seen among Blue-headed Wagtails on 28 April near St. Valéry. It is probable that a few pairs remain to breed, as undoubted males were seen at the end of May among the lucerne crops near the mouth of the river.
Blue-headed Wagtail
Very common on the meadows and lucerne fields near the mouth of the river. This wagtail was first noted on 27 April, and a colony of about ten pairs had taken up their residence in a marshy, coarse grass- and rush- covered flat near St. Valéry by 28 April. A nest with six fresh eggs was found on 15 May, and three more nests with sucked eggs. A day or two later, a colleague who used to go about with the writer, caught a Cuckoo red-handed beside another nest of this species with newly-broken and partly-sucked eggs. The Cuckoo was shot, and subsequently another Cuckoo was found dead, evidently shot, on the same patch of ground. Other eggs found sucked were those of the Reed Bunting and Partridge. It seems impossible to believe that a soft-billed bird like a Cuckoo can suck Partridge eggs, but there was no doubt about the Wagtail's. No Harrier or other egg-sucking bird or beast was ever seen in that neighbourhood. By 22 May, the colony was practically non-existent, but one more nest, containing young, was found at the end of May by the same friend.
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| Cuckoo - 'egg-sucking' activities? |
* To be continued
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