Freeform Gardening and Redpolls
Sunday 22 February
Starting to think about wild (freeform) gardening
Depending on where you live you are already walking your garden deciding on plans for the spring and summer or, like us, looking out on snow to the horizon. I have not written much about this topic since the fall but it is not forgotten and will return before too long. Meanwhile …
“Wild gardening is about shedding obsessions with tidiness, embracing a looser aesthetic and providing a home for the most important creatures on the planet”
We, and most animals, cannot survive without insects. Insects will do much better if you have a range of plants, ideally, a good mix of native species, because our insects are more likely to feed on those. Plants with flowers that need to be pollinated are essential for bees, hoverflies, moths and butterflies. Try to ensure that something is flowering in each season.
(I have lost the source of this quote which has been in my files for some time).
Please note … as we gradually move out of winter and the start of the gardening season approaches I will probably have less time available for writing twice weekly newsletters and more time will be needed each day to have a spade in my hands . There may be some seasonal changes coming to the Whilst Out Walking publication schedule, but I will talk about that next week, the 1st of March.
Wild Encounters : Redpolls - The Same, Yet Different
Redpolls are lovely little finches that come down from the far north in some years to feed in our gardens and parks and wooded areas. Where they appear is dictated by food availability, weather or other similar factors - we don’t see them every winter.These irruptive migrations are generally unpredictable, but when they happen small flocks of birds come to our feeders. Redpolls are well-adapted to tough conditions, having specialized throat pouches for temporarily storing seeds and a particularly dense plumage that insulates them against sub-zero temperatures.
Recent genetic studies have resulted in the official “lumping” (at last!) of Redpolls, that were once divided into three separate species - Common, Hoary, and Lesser - into one single species, Acanthis flammea. While clearly distinguishable plumage features exist, it is now accepted that extensive interbreeding and minimal genetic divergence, mean that the various “forms” previously considered to be separate species are, for all that, just part of one single species. Adaptive traits, moderated by environmental factors, can create remarkable variation within a species without true reproductive isolation - look at our own human species, for example.
Existential Question - What exactly is a “Species ?”
How many species of Redpolls are there? One, three or five? There has long been controversy about this and I plan to nail my colours to the mast, stir the pot a bit. If we are lucky at this cold time of the year we will start to see irrupting Redpolls, mostly Common Redpolls, around us. Mixed with them might be a very few Hoary Redpolls. They are delightful little birds that bring a spring to the birder’s step - but some of them look as different from each other as Alsatians do from Bulldogs, while both being “dogs”.
We are accustomed to thinking about species as a way to define creatures and plants. We assume that these are set in stone. After all apples and pears are quite clearly different species as are Common and Hoary Redpolls. Aren’t they? For birders who keep life lists (as one does) two ticks are always going to be preferable to one tick. However, just because two creatures look strikingly different does not mean they actually are different species. Just look at dogs.
There have been a number of papers published intimating that, once you start looking at the DNA and some other markers, Redpolls are actually all just one species, however different they appear to the eye. The “authority” on common names has yet to make a clear ruling. Lump or split? Our friend, Mark Dennis, has written and excellent short commentary on what lumping them into one species might mean for birders as opposed to taxonomists - you may read it at http://tinyurl.com/2uay897t
The evidence (I offer an optional, lengthier treatment further down this page - feel free to ignore it) is now quite clear that the various forms of Redpoll, yes, including the Hoary, are all one “species” and therein lies the problem for ticking birders. The science of taxonomy and the definition of a species is the gold standard but it has within it much nuance. That there are, to quote a friend, “uniquely identifiable forms” is unarguable ... so why did we for so many years stick so rigidly to what is an outmoded definition of species (by following the ABA and similar organisation’s lead) when we had no need to? As a scientist I understand and am interested by the new information coming out of studies into Redpoll DNA/RNA and have never had problems with them being one species - just like humans, in fact. On the other hand I understand that listers were very happy to have four potential ticks for the species. Apples and pears, not the same thing.
I (and I am not alone) suggest that birders who keep lists consider ceasing to list species and start listing forms - Our lists, our rules.
Let’s dig a little deeper. This next bit is for serious recreational birders for the most part, and entirely optional.
I don’t want to make this post any longer, but if you care to know more about species and forms and what can or could be listed by birders without upsetting the taxonomists, then please download this PDF using the link below. It’s not all that long and it’s full of good stuff. I wrote this not long before the ABA agreed that there is only one species, but several forms, of Redpolls. You might find it interesting, anyway.
Heavyweight Nature Photography
A century ago, wildlife photography involved “heavy mahogany and brass cameras and glass plates, stout wooden tripods and sometimes magnesium flash powder.” The chap on the rope was photographing Gannets.
Park Benches - a fine place to watch birds from
Grow a tiny pine tree - the first two years
Searching for Birds
https://searchingforbirds.visualcinnamon.com/
It might seem challenging to get from “duck” to the more specific Green-winged Teal. But the identification process starts with a simple step: caring to know a bird’s name in the first place. Often, this happens after a particular encounter with a very special bird — a so-called “spark bird.” A spark bird is the catalyst to wanting to discover more. Every spark bird is personal because people are moved by birds for different reasons. Sometimes it’s the flash of color or striking patterns of the feathers. Other times it’s a mesmerizing behavior or an unexpectedly close encounter. But whatever the case, a spark bird becomes the gateway to identifying other birds.
Why do animals go extinct?
I was really interested to read this explanation of how geography and tectonic plate movements influence extinction and survival chances alongside the usual arrival of asteroids, climate change etc.
https://climateages.substack.com/p/why-the-shape-of-continents-mattered/comments
Other Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/feb/15/wild-gardening-rewilding-garden-sounds
Hail, hail a fellow lumper! In the effort to classify everything, and for hard core listers-to tick off every species, there is often little hard science for the splitting of species. Not to mention that it cuts into the joy of observing.....