355 



T'HE EFFECT OF THE STORMS OF 1903 ON 

 BIRD LIFE DURING 1903-4. 



KENNETH McLEAN, 

 Harrogate. 



There is an old saying- that a west wind goes to bed at night, 

 and I have frequently noticed this to be true, but at the com- 

 mencement of 1903 the wind behaved in a most unprecedented 

 manner, upsetting all proverbs and beating all records. When 

 w^e retired for the night it was blowing and roaring, and when 

 we got up it was roaring and blowing. And this continued with 

 scarcely any intermission for at least three months. It was 

 interesting to note how these prevailing tearing west winds 

 affected bird life. It caused the Rooks a lot of extra labour. 

 Their nests in many cases were completely blown away and they 

 had to find fresh material and fresh places ; it was not a matter 

 of rearrangement but rebuilding with them. In their choice of 

 fresh places the bulk of those which had to rebuild selected 

 much lower positions ; but, alas, even then the earlier birds had 

 their nests again blown out, and a great many eggs were thrown 

 cut of the nests to the ground by the swaying of the trees. My 

 observations extended to something over half-a-dozen rookeries 

 in the neighbourhood of Harrogate. 



Even Magpies' nests, 'those wonderful structures so twined 

 and intertwined into the branches of the tree tops that they had 

 resisted the storms of many years,' were scattered by the raging 

 winds. I noticed, however, in several cases trees containing 

 the nests of these birds w^ere uprooted and blown down, but the 

 nests remained whole. So cleverly had they been interwoven, 

 the sweeping blast and crash of the falling tree had affected 

 them but little, a fact which clearly proved the skill of the 

 builders. 



I never before saw so many Blackbirds', Thrushes' and 

 Hedge Sparrows' nests at the very bottom of the hedges and on 

 the ground. Never a season passes without my seeing a fair 

 number of these nests so placed, but during my rambles in the 

 early spring of 1903 I found fully four out of five had chosen 

 such lowly positions. One Blackbird had evidently postponed 

 building too long, and in her hurry had scruffled herself a hollow 

 on the bank side and there laid her four eggs upon which I found 

 her sitting ; there w as no sign of a nest in her case. 



I can almost fancy some discussion took place betwixt many 

 of these male and female members of the Aves family as to 



1904 December i. 



