With it being the RSPB’S Big Garden Birdwatch in January, it got us thinking about how we could join in by keeping our eyes peeled for different birds in our archive. While on the lookout we came across a variety of different feathery friends hiding amongst the shelves. These are just some of our favourites.
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We have a number of designs from the Poole Pottery collection that feature birds. Amongst these we have spotted a lovely set of colour transparencies of limited-edition British bird plates from 1978 (D-PPY/D/6/8/3/46). These plates depict birds such as blue tits, robins and blackbirds that are still very common today and were in the top ten birds recorded in the 2019 birdwatch.
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In our reference library you can also catch a glimpse of some lovely books on Dorset Birds. If you are looking for somewhere to birdwatch beyond your garden, why not have a read of ‘Where to Watch Birds in Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of White’ by George Green and Martin Cade. Alternatively, if you are trying to identify a bird you have already seen, ‘Birds of Dorsetshire’ by John Mansel-Pleydell may be a good place to start.
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If you are looking for more of a rare sighting, try our rare books collection. If you look closely you might just catch sight of a copy of ‘The Book of Baby Birds’, written by Florence E. Dugdale. Florence Dugdale was Thomas Hardy’s second wife, and this was the first book that she published in 1912, she then went on to write several other children’s books. This book features a number of different baby birds, including the long-eared owl, the yellow hammer, and the cygnet. Each bird is accompanied by a delightful coloured illustration by E. J. Detmold and a poem and description by Florence. One description that we particularly enjoyed was that of the Skua bird;
‘He is a pirate, this strong and bold sea-bird. He is well called the “Highwayman of the Ocean,” for he robs other birds of the prey that they catch for themselves. When some poor, innocent Gull has caught a fish, and is starting for home with the family meal, the Skua will chase him, demanding in dumb show: “Your fish or your life.”’
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While hunting through our series of Record Office Notes , we stumbled upon a collection of newspaper and magazine cuttings on the topic of birds. We particularly liked an article titled ‘Peacock Pilgrimage’ by Muriel V. Searle about the Peacocks on Brownsea Island (RON/2/2/Brownsea Island/33). In this amusing article the author comments on how
‘A Peacock’s bottom is a miracle of natural engineering, a symmetrical half-circle of struts and braces, the coloured plumes being mounted on stiff quills as long as a man’s arm in a great fan’.
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We have had a hoot finding these various birds in our collections. That’s all for Dorset History Centre’s Archive Birdwatch for this year, we hope you are inspired to visit us in 2020 to find out more information, and we encourage you to take part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch between 25-27 January 2020!