Nature Watch with Ron Freethy

ONE of the most common birds to be found along our watercourses is the moorhen.

Perhaps because it is so common it is underrated.

What a pity it would be not to enjoy watching such a fascinating species.

In the 19th century one of the finest poets in England was John Clare (1793-1864).

He began life as a ploughboy in Northamptonshire and sadly ended his life in an asylum for the insane.

In between, however, he wrote some of the finest poems about nature ever to be recorded in the English language.

He wrote The Moorhen's Nest:

And once again the couple from the brood,

Seek their old birthplace - and in safety's mood,

Lodge there their flags and lay though danger comes

It dares and tries and cannot reach their homes.

And so they hatch their eggs and sweetly dream

On their shelfed nest that bridge the gulphy stream.

In this poem Clare uses a few dialect words such as flags which means water weeds and flag iris which is common around the margins of ponds.

His grasp of the moorhen's behaviour is first class.

He knew that moorhens were territorial and returned to the same breeding site year after year. Unlike their near relative the coot, very few moorhens migrate and they usually remain the same area year after year.

The nest is built as a platform of reeds by both sexes and a clutch of around five to 11 eggs is laid.

In 1996, close to the edge of Belmont Reservoir, I found a nest containing 19 eggs.

On consulting the reference books I found that there were several reliable records of two females sharing one nest and taking it in turns to incubate the clutch with the male also in attendance.

I have heard of the eternal triangle but this is ridiculous!

The scientific name for the moorhen is gallinula chloropus. It belongs to the rail family which includes the rare water rail, the very rare corncrake and the even rarer purple gallinule but also a member of the family is the very common coot.

Outside the breeding season the moorhen tends to congregate and roost on sheltered lakes and reservoirs but canals and sewage works are also favoured sites.

Many books suggest that moorhens are vegetarians but this is not quite true.

They do mainly feed on seeds, fruit, grass, leaves and moss but they will occasionally consume earthworms, slugs, snails, tadpoles and fish.

There are occasional records of moorhens climbing trees and dragging young song birds out of their nests and eating them.

This accounts for the fact that these small birds panic when they see a moorhen and they sometimes gather together and mob them in the same way that they treat owls and sparrowhawks.

Who can blame them?

The breeding period of the moorhen is between April and August when two or even three broods are produced.

There are, however, many records of breeding during the winter.

It is worthwhile keeping an eye open in the Lancashire countryside for the moorhen.

They will always be interesting but every now and again they will come up with something unusual.

This is why the moorhen is such a fascinating species.

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