Bog Myrtle & Peat

My attempts to work with grey partridges took a welcome but unexpected turn yesterday when I came into possession of seventeen eight week old poults. Thanks to a reader of this blog, I drove down to Penrith to collect a box of birds which have been totally captivating me ever since I got them home.

Grey partridges are fascinating little birds, and it’s great to have them in the garden so that I can go out and see them whenever I stop for a cup of coffee or a cigarette. They’re in a run which butts onto my garden shed so that they can get shelter if it rains, but thankfully the weather has been holding quite dry for the past 24 hours and they haven’t needed to go indoors.

I’m particularly enjoying the wide variety of little noises they make, as well as their desire to share everything. If one wants to go for a drink, it starts skreeking until all the others are mobilised, then they go to the drinker as one. They sleep together in a little mound, and wander around their pen in a posse, ticking their tails and muttering. When I get a moment, I must do some sketches of them in juvenile plumage, because judging by the few grey feathers on their breasts, they’ll soon moult into the classic adult grey. There will be a great deal more to follow on the subject of these birds…