canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat February 2018 45WATERSIDE WILDLIFE
CBC
haucer’s The Parliament
of Fowls (c. 1381)
describes birds
gathering at the bower of “the
noble goddess of Nature” to
settle their love rivalries “on
Saint Valentine’s day, When
every fowl cometh there to
choose his mate”. Some
medieval birdwatchers had
observed that birds began to
mate in mid-February and
linked the date to that of the
traditional first day of spring
when plants begin to grow,
February 14th. This just
happened to be the feast day of
St Valentine.
I find late winter one of the
best times of the year for
birding when many of our
commoner small British birds
can be easily seen, flitting in
mixed flocks amongst the bare
winter branches, advertisingtheir presence by song. The
lengthening days have triggered
hormonal changes that
stimulate courting behaviour.
Many are already in long-term
pair bonds, such as mute
swans, house sparrows and
pigeons. Look out for wood
pigeons on the warmer days of
February cuddling close
together on a high perch,
preening each other – literally
billing and cooing. Other birds,
including some blackbirds, tits,
robins and chaffinches, reform
marriages of convenience after
a winter apart. But a lot of
species are busy finding a new
mate, and song seems to play a
role in the selection process,
advertising both the male bird’s
stamina and his territory.
The cheery, bright yellow,
star-like blossoms of Lesser
Celandine, one of the earliest ofour spring flowers, light up the
undergrowth with their golden
sheen even before winter is
spent. This harbinger of spring
has many regional names,
including butter-and-cheese
and Golden Guineas, which
aptly describe the glossy yellow
flowers (“Bright as the sun
itself” – Wordsworth), each
with up to 12 pointed petals and
three pale green sepals.
Celandine flowers, appearing
from February to May, only
open their petals in sun, closing
up in cloudy weather and at
dusk. The outer cell layer
(epidermis) of the petals is
filled with pigment and the cells
beneath are packed with white
starch grains, that probably
contribute to their bright,
reflective nature.
This member of the
buttercup family grows in damp
grassy habitats, and flowers in
profusion at the bottom of
hedgerows along the towpath.
Don’t confuse it with the
similar-coloured, round-petalled
buttercup flowers: they won’t
be out until April. Celandine
flowers grow singly on each
stem arising from the clump of
heart or ivy-shaped leaves, and
after pollination by insects, the
flowers become paler and even
white at the end of their life as
the pigment fades. If the
weather remains too cold for
insects and seed set, the plant
can also propagate itself by tiny
bulbils that nestle in the leaf
axils and fall to the ground in
early summer.
Like other Ranunculaceae,
lesser celandine is poisonouswhen freshly picked. Small,
fig-like (hence the specific name
“ficaria”) tubers grow on the
roots and, by the doctrine of
signatures, were once used to
treat haemorrhoids, hence
another common name,
pilewort. (There is a greater
celandine, but it is an unrelated
plant – a member of the poppy
family.)
As one of the first flowers to
appear after winter, celandines
provide an important nectar
source for early insects,
especially queen bumblebees
emerging from hibernation.
After the long winter, the new
queens, who mated at the end
of the summer, need to
replenish their own body fats
with pollen and nectar, before
finding a suitable sheltered nest
site – old mouse holes are good
real estate. The queen will build
a nest of dried grasses and
stock it up with a nectar pot
and pollen larder before laying
about a dozen eggs.
These hatch into the larvae
that will become the first sterile
female workers, smaller than
their mother, that help to feed
later batches of grubs.
In the language of flowers,
lesser celandine symbolises
‘joys to come’ – let us hope the
spring has many to offer.Birdsong heralds the return of amorous courting
couples in the treetops, explains Pip WebsterSpringing
back to life
The superb celandine