GHOULISH DELIGHTS
There are supernatural goings on going on at RSPB Old Moor at the moment. Of course there are, look at the calendar. We're close to Halloween and we have our BIG WILD HALLOWEEN trail on the reserve where our younger visitors can solve challenges, hunt monsters and find out about how nature handles the challenges of Autumn. It's all good spooky fun but if you want to know more about the darker side of Halloween then you need look no further than the birds that are associated with this most ghoulish time of the year.
The most obvious birds related to the time around All-Hallows Eve are the corvids. Crows, Rooks and Ravens. I looked at them in depth in my recent 'Birds From The Dark Side' blog, but in that piece I didn't really delve into the dark folklore of these blackest of birds. So turn down the lights, wrap up warm against the cold and read on...
Corvids will forever be associated with death and dead bodies because (as the Carrion Crow's name suggests) these ancient birds are ideally adapted to eat soft dead flesh. Think of them as little vultures. They've been feeding like this since well before humans arrived on the planet so they were well in the habit by the time people started slaughtering each other in large numbers during wartime. They were often the first birds to be seen on battlefields, feasting on the fallen, so it was a simple if grim leap for our forefathers to see them as bringers of death and harbingers of doom. They only really noticed these birds at times of human death so if one was seen on somebody's roof then it seemed natural to assume that someone who lived there would soon die. After all, why would a Raven or Crow hang around people if not to wait for an upcoming cadaver to feast on?
I can sort of understand those mental leaps (even if they appear a little laughable in our more enlightened times) but there are other ancient beliefs that are beyond my comprehension. For example the Greek myths tell of how the goddess Athena ensured that all crows would henceforth be black because one of them brought her some bad (dark) news. That's a heck of a nasty anger reaction she had there. Athena love, get some therapy.
But even further on the “I can't believe they ever thought that” scale is the fact that the Swedish people believed that Ravens were the reincarnated spirits of murder victims. I can't see the rhyme nor reason behind that. It just seems a little random to me. As does the belief that Canadian and Native American people held that the Crow was really a trickster spirit. They tell stories of how he played mischievous games on humans and gods alike, just for his own entertainment. They're fun tales but I can't see any basis in natural behaviour beyond an acknowledgement of the corvid's intelligence.
It seems that we've always seen these big black birds as being something from the darker side of nature, right back since before recorded history. It's become ingrained within every one of us. In 1845 Edgar Allen Poe tapped into this subconscious fear of these intelligent birds with his timeless poem, 'The Raven'. This further cemented the view of our largest perching bird as darkly spiritual beings, a view which survives to this day. If you haven't read it then I'd urge you to click on the link above. Settle down and savour it slowly, it's a wonderful multi-layered study of grief and madness – both long held thematic staples of Halloween tales.
Another bird associated with the spookiest night of the year is occasionally known as the ghost owl, death owl or bird of doom. These are local folk names for the Barn Owl. There are several of these gorgeous creatures to be seen around our Dearne Valley reserves and they definitely don't deserve their sinister noms des plume. Of course they're mostly seen at night, and they can make a ghastly, ghostly sound, which might lead our ancestors to think that there was something unearthly abroad on a misty night walking home after a few jars at ye olde tavern. And the owl's skull-like face peeking out from a hole in a tree might give people the heebies, as well as the jeebies, And yes, they fly silently so a sight of a white shape floating across the fields, illuminated only by the light of the moon may have seemed like some spectral apparition to the uneducated. But there's absolutely nothing to fear from the beautiful Barn Owl – unless you're a field mouse taking a nocturnal short-cut.
The truth is that we don't need a spooky enhanced-reality overlay filter thingy to appreciate the magnificence of organisms that some would associate with the night of the year when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead are at their thinnest. Corvids, owls, bats, fungi, rotten leaves and cold winds. Come out and witness for yourself all of these things and realise that there's nothing 'supernatural' about them at all.
They're simply super. And they're all totally natural.
Volunteer Shaun welcomes visitors to RSPB Old Moor. He also writes a weekly blog about life at the reserve titled, "View From the Shed". He usually wears a big hat.