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 scaring the life out of late-night dog walkers. A very 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 want to be alone yet they feed in flocks. It is suspected that all the redwings that arrive in the UK are female, that after nesting they have demanded to go to a completely different country than the males. Most years, though, some males miss the memo. This is why you will sometimes hear the song of the redwing before they all go back to Scandinavia in the spring. It is a very, very seductive song. And this is also why a very, very small handful of redwings end up nesting in Scotland.”
