vendredi 13 avril 2007

Cowslips and Cuckoos Where are they? The call of the Cuckoo has a special meaning in many people's minds... it heralds the arrival of Spring on April 14th. And so, traditionally, in Britain at this time of the year "The Times" newspaper will be publishing stories of first sightings of the bird in and around various parts of the country - the more far-flung the more interesting the copy will be spun. In France, however, the call is heard on any day of any season... but not as you are probably thinking. One hears the word coucou [pronounced ku-ku] frequently because it is often playfully used to announce someone's presence or arrival... as when saying, "Hello there," or "Hi, it's me." One has to be careful, though, when doing this... since Roman times the word has been used to warn a husband of an adulterer. And Dr. Johnson wrote that, "It was usual to alarm a husband at the approach of an adulterer by calling out 'Cuckoo', which by mistake was applied in time to the person warned." [Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable - Centenary Edition (1970), Cassell, London.] With the latter knowledge in mind I'll be more circumspect when I pop into into the local Casino supermarché and call out the word in greeting staff at the check-out... there may be a known adulterer - and the adulteress - waiting uncomfortably in the queue, leading to red faces all around! There are a few apt lines from Rudyard Kipling's "To The Cuckoo" too... O Blithe New-comer! I have heard, I hear thee and rejoice, O Cuckoo! Shall I call thee bird, Or but a wandering voice? In Britain Cuckoos are heard more than they are seen... the distinct mating call usually being between a potential pairing separated by a few acres of woodland or countryside. However, there are reports and an article that the bird is in decline... ...figures released by the British Trust for Ornithology show that cuckoo numbers have plummeted by almost 60 per cent over the past 30 years. Graham Madge from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is equally concerned. "We have been alarmed for some time about the cuckoo's fall in numbers over the last three decades," he says. "For such a familiar bird to be in so much trouble is extremely worrying." Indeed, such is the crisis in cuckoo numbers that it's expected that the cuckoo will soon be added to the Red List, a register of the UK's most threatened breeding birds. On this side of the Channel, the French word coucou is their name for the wild plant Cowslip which, like the Cuckoo, usually makes it's appearance mid-March... although I first heard the Cuckoo in central France on April 1st., which seems later than last year. Here, judging by the constant calling of the bird, and the profusion everywhere of the flower, numbers of neither are in decline. Perhaps my mind is playing tricks - but whilst I clearly remember cycling/camping holidays with my parents in the 1950s and seeing Cowslips along roadside verges and in the fields where our tent was pitched... I saw very few along roadsides in the 1990s, and when I thought there was a heavy fine for being caught picking them. Now, when I read articles on British native wild flowers some say the Cowslip is in danger, others that it is common. It obviously depends on the balance between natural habitat and urban encroachment... or does it? Whilst they are protected in Northern Ireland under Schedule 8 of the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985, such protection does not apply to North-East Scotland where they, and other species, are in danger. As Bob Davis wrote in Leopard ; The Magazine for North-East Scotland under the heading "Wild Flowers on the Verge of Disaster"... "Flower-power is the answer; we should create roadside verges brimming with wildflowers, making our roads blooming beautiful. We have lost much of our floral diversity in the countryside. Gone are the meadows full of cowslip (Primula veris), oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) and meadow cranesbill (Geranium pratense); missing are the hedgerows that harboured primrose (Primula vulgaris), violet (Viola riviniana) and stitchwort (Stellaria holostea). Where are our verges populated by harebell (Geranium pratense), lady's bedstraw (Galium verum) and bird's-foot trefoil? This latter loss is more recent and stems from a crazy belief that we should have neat lawns alongside our roads." To see what we can do to help it is worth looking up the "Plantlife International: Our plants, our planet our future" web site of the wild plant conservation charity whose Patron is H.R.H. The Prince of Wales. And I will end on another positive line or three. The Cowslip produces a large quantity of pollen and so is searched out by bees... as Shakespeare wrote in his "Tempest"... "Where the bee sucks, there suck I, In a cowslip's bell I lie." And from lines of poetry to walking the route of the old London, Brighton & South Coast Railway "Cuckoo Line" which could be done on April 21st, the weekend of the Heffle Cuckoo Fair at Heathfield in East Sussex. In bygone times an Old Woman used to let the first Cuckoo out of her basket at the Fair... if she can't find one this year perhaps the coucou flower will be more plentiful on the Cuckoo Trail. 11:09:43 PM    comment []