Flora and Fauna of Regency England ~ March

by Michele Ann Young
I am beginning to forget what I have posted on this topic and when I go back through my posts I am quite startled by the amount of information I have gleaned from here and there. What I would really like to do, is to spend a year in England, travelling the highways and byways taking pictures. But then I would never get any stories done, would I? A writer's lot is a hard one. (Joking)

This little fellow is a Wheatear, also known as an English Ortolan according to our naturalist who says.

This bird

again pays its annual visit (leaving in September). They are found in great numbers about East Bourne, in Sussex, eighteen hundred dozen being annually taken in this neighbourhood. They are usually sold at sixpence a dozen

Today, this bird is rarely found in the south of England. I wonder why? Quite sad really.

Since the quote was from 1820, I thought the price interesting.


Of interest to our regency people, the brown trout begins to rise. This is a freshwater fish, found in brooks streams and rivers, and delicious eating, then and today. It is a member of the Salmon family.

I'm sure poachers had a field day.

By this time, England is already greening up in the hedgerows. And of course the grass is nearly always green. And what are the farmers up to?

According to our naturalist:

In March the farmer dresses and rolls his meadows; spreads anthills; plants quicksets, osiers, etc. sows flax seed, artificial grasses, beans and peas, broom and whin seeds and grass seeds among the wheat. About the 23^rd he ploughs for and sows oats and hemp and fax.

That's all from me, Until next time, Happy Rambles