THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
I'm sure that you're all familiar with the festive song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas'. You know, the one with the Five Gow-wold rings. There's a lot of confusion as to when these twelve days are, with many people erroneously believing that they're the twelve days leading up to Christmas Day. That's wrong. The Big Day itself is not the end of, but actually the start of (or as some believe the day before) Twelvetide or Christmastide as it's also known. So the song is celebrating the birth of Jesus and the period immediately afterwards leading up to Twelfth Night, the night of the 5th and 6th of January. We're at the beginning of those Twelve Days right now.
I heard the song while wandering around the shops the other day and it struck me as to how much livestock my true love just happens to be able to give away. Is she a farmer of some kind? It starts off with her gifting me a partridge in a pear tree. That's nice of her, and quite viable, as both are quite common around where I live. There's even a possibility that you might see both of those at RSPB Old Moor. We do occasionally have a few Red-Legged Partridges running around the place, although when most visitors claim to have seen one at the reserve it actually turns out to be a female PHEASANT. They're mistresses of disguise, those ladies. But there's certainly a Pear Tree against the shop and cafe wall. Not that I've ever scrumped any fruit from it in my younger days. As if I would...
This got me thinking. Which of the creatures listed in the song would you be able to spot on a Winter's day at Old Moor? Working backwards (as they do in the chorus) we find that a lot of the presents are implausibly human ones. I mean, it's nice of her and everything but what would I possibly want with group performances on pipes and drums, or with cavorting lords and ladies? And I definitely have no need for milkmaids. My house is far too small for any cattle.
No, the first mention of avian gifts comes at number seven with swans a-swimming, swiftly followed by six geese a-laying. It would be a very bad day's birdwatching indeed if you didn't spot any geese or swans on our main mere. They're both pretty much permanent fixtures here.
Then we have the famous five rings. None of us who work at Old Moor are Olympians to my knowledge so I guess that one is out, but after that comes the biggest misconception of the entire song. All these years you've (probably) been singing it wrong. My true love didn't bring me any “calling” birds at all, on the fourth or any other day of Christmas. She gave me COLLY birds. Colly is a corruption of 'coaly' – as in coal black, the same as Collie Dog, the ones you see on telly rounding up sheep. So it turns out that my true love brought me four Turdus Merula birds, AKA the Common Blackbird. Colour me unimpressed.
French hens next? Well no, that's another bust. As far as I'm aware the Dearne Valley is not home to Faverolles or any other Gallic poultry at all. Unless the cafe has got a special on. Coq au Vin would be very warming after a day outside the Welcome Shed, thank you.
Which brings us to the saddest lyric of them all. One of the species mentioned in the song is high up on my “top birds to spot” list. I've yet to see one, despite them having not been particularly uncommon when I was a wee slip of a thing. The Turtle Dove population has declined faster than any other British bird over recent decades with numbers plummeting by more than 90% since the 1970s. But the RSPB are hoping to reverse this trend by trying to increase their habitat in the UK and reduce the hunting of these beautiful birds in mainland Europe. Every time you pay your membership donation, entrance of car parking fee at a reserve, buy something from the shop or treat yourself to a coffee and a bun in our cafe you're helping to halt this decline and maybe, just maybe, bring about another success story with the Turtle Doves like we've seen with the increase in Bittern and Avocet populations. Thank you. You really do make a difference.
There is of course another reason why you won't see Turtle Doves at Old Moor or any other RSPB UK property this Christmas; they're Summer visitors to these shores. If my beloved ever gave me a pair for Christmas she wouldn't remain with me for very long. Who wants to receive a bird that's obviously been trapped and caged since Summer? What kind of person gives that as a gift? No True Love of mine, that's for sure.
Beyond those, you might also see the birds listed on our sightings board in the following photo.
Here's hoping that you have a happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year, from all the staff and volunteers at the RSPB Dearne Valley sites.