The following appeared in the Birmingham Evening Mail, 11 June 1984.
To Edith Holden, whose Country Diary was filmed by Central Television, the sight and sound of the corncrake was commonplace in the fields round her Olton home.
Today, 78 years after she carefully penned her nature notes for 1906, you have to go to Ireland or the Outer Hebrides to see this shy denizen of the hayfields.
It is just one example from a fascinating comparative study of Edith Holden's birds, then and now, just, published in the bulletin of the West Midlands Bird Club.
The author, a club member for 20 years, is Mrs Barbara Lewis, of Lyndon Road, Olton. Her list of birds seen in the garden of her semi-detached home stands at 47 species — compared with the 76 recorded by Edith in 1906.
"It reflects the changing face of the countryside," says Mrs Lewis, a former secretary with the Solihull Area Health Authority.
"There are more people, more houses and more disturbance for the birds today."
Among the now-rare birds Edith encountered in her cycle-rides were Hawfinch, Red-backed Shrike, and Nightjars. She records being shown two stuffed nightjars which had been shot by a gamekeeper in Elmdon Lane, Olton.
On the plus side, Edith Holden would not have expected to see modern immigrants like Canada Geese and Collared Doves.
Roland Smith
[Picture caption: The nightjar: common in Edith Holden's day, but now found regularly only on Cannock Chase.]
Ornithology in Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire & the West Midlands county, since 1929.
Fetched from http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/club/press/bem-1984-06-11.htm on Saturday 17 May 2008 02:05:59
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