Redwing
£25.00
A lot of lies about redwings, from the ‘Lies About Birds’ series. (Scroll down to read the text.) Illustrated with a poor photograph of a paper bird I have made out of old RSPB magazines.
A4 print, mounted (and put in a cellophane bag to prevent escapes).
(Please note that, regretfully, I don’t send work outside of the UK.)
1 in stock
“Redwings arrive in the UK in the autumn flying backwards under cover of darkness, whistling like an under-powered kettle and frightening the life out of late-night dog walkers. A beautiful, rather small, thrush the redwing is a whole set of contradictions hopping around in parks and fields all winter in small flocks.
The wings of a redwing are brown. It’s their armpits that are red. They come from Scandinavia yet are quite likely to keel over and expire during a British cold snap. They crave quiet yet they hang around with noisy fieldfares. Some say that all the redwings that arrive in winter are female. After a summer of domestic drudgery females simply go off on migration without the males. If males do tag along, they appear to be tolerated so long as they don’t lose something and expect the females to find it. So why do they return in spring to Scandinavia? It’s the irresistibly seductive male’s song. Think boy band. Think screaming at The Beatles. It wears off, of course, but it’s delicious while it lasts…”
