Hot. Some blackberries reddening. Found a few mushrooms. Most of the corn now cut, & everyone working fast to get in the remainder while the good weather lasts. Conveys of partridges are mostly large (8-12 birds) but the young birds seem rather small. Saw a bird which I cannot identify. In size colour & type by flight it resembled a waterhen, but apparently was not a waterhen, as it flew too well & took to the wing too rapidly, & also it was nowhere near water. It got up together with a hen pheasant, but was certainly not a pheasant at any stage of development. When Marx put up a covey of partridges the mother did the well known trick (it is sometimes denied that this really happens) of leading M. off by flying rather slowly & squawking, while the young ones flew away in a different direction. What I believe was a fieldfare, though this seems very early. Cock goldfinch calling to mates makes sound rather like “chee-wa” (less like “cheese” than that of greenfinch).
8 eggs (3 small).
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Nobody does that “well know trick” as well as a male kildeer, in my experience. He thrashes around as if both wings were broken, probably very irresistibly to a dog.
Have we met Marx before? Evidently GO/EB’s dog?
Last summer I found a kildeer nest in the gravel along the edge of a road. If they wised up a bit about nest location choice, they wouldn’t have to risk so much to defend it.
I’ve seen grouse do that, in Norway. Mother squaking and flapping and being loud and slightly suicidal, while the young (who had been hiding until we got so close, we almost stepped on them) ran off.
If Marx is the dog, it pre-minds of a couple of more recent dogs I know called “Karl” (as in Karl Barks).