Francis Hickenbottom’s Nature Notes.
5th August 2010
When I was a schoolboy, I was shocked by the response of a friend’s father when my friend told him that he was bored. The boy’s father suggested that he should collect birds’ eggs.
Egg-
For anyone interested in natural history, there are many things which can be collected without causing any harm. I collect a number of things which give clues to the creatures which are present in the countryside, such as seashells, bones, fragments of eggshells, regurgitated pellets and casts of footprints. One of my collections is a set of feathers which I have picked up during my travels.
Feathers from some species turn up more often than others. Wood pigeon feathers are, not surprisingly, very common and I also come across feathers from tawny owls and greater spotted woodpeckers quite frequently.
On one occasion, I was walking around the cricket field at Ackworth when I spotted a feather which was brown with white spots. My initial thought was that it was from one of the little owls which live in the school grounds.
However, on picking up the feather I saw that there was a yellowish green streak along one edge and i realise that it came from the wing of a green woodpecker.
