This article first appeared in the Club's Bulletin for May/ June 1984, #313:
EDITH HOLDEN'S BIRDS
The recent presentation on TV of "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" prompted me to browse once again through Edith Holden's "Nature Notes for 1906", written during the period when the Holden family lived in Olton, Solihull. Edith regularly walked the local lanes and sometimes cycled further afield, visiting Elmdon Park, Packwood, Knowle, Yarningale Common, Baddesley Clinton, Shrewley, Temple Balsall, and occasionally Stratford-upon-Avon.
Having lived in Olton for over 20 years, I was interested to see the list of "Wild Birds found in the Neighbourhood of 0lton", which Edith gives at the end of her Diary (a total of 76) and compare it with the birds which might be seen today.
In the countryside where she used to cycle we would hardly expect nowadays to come across Corncrake, Hawfinch, Red-backed Shrike or Nightjar, and would consider ourselves lucky to see or hear Nightingale, Turtle Dove, Ring Ouzel, Whinchat, Redstart or Wood Warbler. One or two interesting entries in her Diary are: -
| June 6th: | Seen around the furze bushes at Yarningale Common were large numbers of Linnets, Whinchats, Yellowhammers and Whitethroats. |
| October 21st: | Chiffchaff in the garden at Olton. |
| November 13th: | The wife of a gamekeeper in Elmdon Lane showed Edith two specimens of stuffed Nightjars which her husband had shot in the neighbourhood. |
| November 14th: | Kingfisher at a pool "by the roadside below Olton Station". |
The list of birds seen includes Barn Owl but not Tawny Owl, so presumably the one she records seeing in St. Bernard's Road on June 8th was a Barn Owl, and of woodpeckers she only gives the Green Woodpecker. The Black-headed Gull (much more of an inland bird nowadays) , Herring Gull and Lapwing are not on her list. She makes no mention in her Diary of visiting pools or lakes although Olton Mere was very close to the family home, and Earlswood Lakes and Berkswell Lake only a few miles away. Perhaps because of this she only records seeing a few water birds, i.e. Mallard, Moorhen, Coot and Little Grebe.
I have kept a record of birds seen in (or from) my suburban garden and now have a total of 47. Edith Holden regularly fed the garden birds and would have been familiar with most of those on my list with a few exceptions such as Siskin, Collared Dove, and the Canada Geese sometimes seen in flight.
As Edith was an Art Teacher and obviously took great care over the accuracy of her paintings of plants and flowers, I think she would have been just as thorough in her observation of birds and that her list can be taken as an accurate record of the birds which could be seen in this locality in 1906.
Mrs. BARBARA LEWIS
The above article was featured in the Birmingham Evening Mail on 11 June 1984