Spoken Word and Wayward Walks

SOUNDINGS

Human descriptions and interpretations of the songs

and calls of birds found in the Thames Estuary (from

the Soundings from the Estuary project).

"...A squeaked "pseep", a liquid "twit",

  a jingle of keys, a rusty lock

  a twisting hinge and metallic "clink"..."

SIGHTINGS

Reports of birds, and other flighted activity, in the

Thames Estuary (from the Soundings from the Estuary

project).

"...Avocet Egg Watch, Pipits on pit-stops,

  Godwits on slipway, and ducks flushed from ditches;

  Peregrines on pylons, Sandpipers in puddles,

  Redshank on mudflats and Fieldfare in paddocks..."

FALSE VAMPIRES

True bat names of the world.

"...The Sucker-footed, Hollow-faced, Tube-nosed, Funnel-eared

  Lobe-lipped, Thumbless, Wing-gland and Clinging Bats..."

THRISTLE MUSH

Local / vernacular names of the characterful Mistle Thrush.

"...Thin-thresher, Screech-drossle, Gawthrush, Charcock, Storm Bird, Skirlock,

  Jeremy Joy, Butcher-bird and Jaypie..."

BRYODIVERSITY

The uncommon 'common' names of British Mosses.

"...The Fuzzy Fork, Frizzled Crisp, Petty Pocket,

  Twiggy Spear and Flabby Thread...."

LESSER-SPOTTED LEPIDOPTERA 

(see below for full version, and Look and Listen page for recording)

The neglected splendour of British moths.

"...The Maiden's Blush, the True Lover's Knot, the Dark Dagger, Pod Lover,

  The Bloodvein, the Gothic, and the Death's-Head Hawk Moth..."

GABBLE RATCHET

Local/vernacular names of British birds.

"Yaffle, Yuckel, Eccle and Yockel

Pick-a-tree, Hew Hole, Nicker Pecker, Wood Hack..."

PENNY BUN or POISON PIE

The possible perils of inaccurate fungi identification: names of British fungi, with a recipe

for Cep Soup, and symptoms of Death Cap poisoning.

"...Witches Butter, Batchelor's Buttons, Old Man of the Woods and Dead Man's Fingers

Bleeding Mycena, Amethyst Deceiver, Bitter Bolete and False Morel..."

RESIDENTS, MIGRANTS AND VAGRANTS

Ornithology and vagrancy, and a crescendo of bird sounds.

"...A chiff-chaffing, a chough choughing,

  a crow coughing, craw crawing, and a ringing sobbing..."

DEAD HEADINGS

The curiously specific world of botanical terminology

and plant naming.

"...A pendulous sedge, sprawling sanicle, ramping fumitory

  and spreading panicle!"

BLIGHT

Plant disorders, diseases and pests.

"...Fruit drop, butt rot, bark split, bitter pit..."

MERMAIDS' PURSES

Coastal and sea life of Britain.

"Cuttlefish, Stickleback, Dabberlocks and Bladder Wrack..."

A SPINKIE DEN

Scottish local/vernacular plant names.

"A spinkie den of rag-a-tag, mappie's lugs and flapper bags

  Runchie, ramps, wrack and rammock..."

SPUDS-YOU'D-LIKE

Just a few of the 427 varieties of British-registered potatoes.

"...Schoolmaster, Chancellor, Home Guard, Avalanche

Dunbar Archer, Ulster Lancer, Arran Banner and Maris Piper".

THE TEASEL MAN IS COMING - see Industry / Activity page.

Researching botanical terminology

by means of cranial osmosis.

(Photo: Julian Bass)

LESSER SPOTTED LEPIDOPTERA 

(The neglected splendour of British Moths)

The Uncertain, the Confused, the Suspected

The Anomalous, the Non-conformist;

The Vestal, the Spectacle, the Festoon, the Forester

The Nut-tree Tussock, Neglected Rustic

Pauper Pug, Obscure Wainscot;

Drab Looper and Dingy Mocha.

The Streak, the Streamer, the Sprawler

The Drinker, Rivulet and Vapourer;

The Orange Upperwing, Orange Underwing

Four-dotted and Four-spotted Footman

The Bright-line Brown-eye and Brown-line Bright-eye;

Indeed, the test of a credible lepidopterist

Is if they know their dots from their spots,

Their uppers from their unders,

Their browns from their brights

And their lines from their eyes!

The Spinach, the Brick, the Cosmopolitan, the Prominent

The Large, Lesser and Least Yellow Underwings

There’s a moth called the Geometrician,

But it needed take a mothematician to distinguish

The Figure of Eight from the Figure of Eighty.

The Buttoned Snout, the Lettuce Shark

The Heart & Club, the Heart & Dart

The Maiden’s Blush, the True Lover’s Knot

The Dark Dagger, Pod Lover

The Bloodvein, the Gothic, and the Death’s-Head Hawk Moth.

The Treble-bar, the Lesser Lutestring

Shuttle-shaped Dart and Map-winged Swift.

The Common Quaker, Cumbrian Umber,

Burnished Brass, Ingrailed Clay

The Chimney Sweeper and the Scorched Carpet.

The exotically-monikered Setaceous Hebrew Character

And alphabetically-patterned ‘Y’ Moth and ‘V’ Moth;

Such splendour is wasted at night –

I say come into the bright – you lesser spotted but greater-warranted, specimens of Lepidoptera!

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Moths, the lesser-appreciated members of Lepidoptera, are at least as fascinating as butterflies, and to prove it, they have many more bizarre descriptive names, most of which are inspired by their curious and often strategic wing markings and patterns. (And this list includes only moths found in Britain, let alone the rest of the world!)

© Germander Speedwell March 2006

The ingenious Mother Shipton moth -

can you spot Mother Shipton's face on

each wing?