Author name: Richard Clarke

There seems no doubt that of all the birds closely observed by the Rev. Gilbert White over his lifetime, mostly in his parish near the south coast, swallows and others of the swallow ‘family’, martins and swifts or ‘hirundines’ as he collectively called them, held a special place in his affections. As touched-on in a […]

Researching the biographies of Rev. Gilbert White’s two main correspondents provides an interesting insight into the methodical studies of late 18th century intellectuals – the two main correspondents being Thomas Pennant (1726 – 1798) and The Honourable Daines Barrington (1727 – 1800). Pennant was a Welsh naturalist, writer and antiquarian who corresponded with many contemporary

Throughout the Rev. White’s letters  are recorded moments when he shot birds, indeed it might seem sometimes as if he carried his gun on all his walks. To the mind of the modern conservationist this seems unforgivable but in an age before ‘protected species’ and the R.S.P.B. it must be stated that his reason for

An undated letter (probably 1775/’76) on p. 100 of the above book has added to it the colour plate shown above. To see a sparrow-hawk take its prey is a fearful sight, the final swoop to the prey being so lightening fast. The plate correctly shows the sparrow-hawk having gone for the throat of the

The Rev. Gilbert White (see previous blog), being a keen gardener and observer of farming practices as he walked around his parish as well as being an ornithologist, wrote that harvest bugs (s.p.b.) gathered on kidney beans and legumes and that they could swarm in such numbers on the chalk South Downs as to discolour

(Sorry for the ‘break in service’ – personal issues). If swifts, swallows and martins rely on winged insects, or more correctly insects on the wing, then this seems to be a niche food source and thus more susceptable to changing environmental conditions. On the short theme of flies I can remember as a child having