Claribel

Speckled and hidden,
He searches for a supper,
Worthy of his song.

The Song Thrush is surely one of our most treasured birds ... today there were two on what I laughingly call, "the vegetable patch". They were avidly looking for juicy worms to eat and found plenty.

Apparently the latin name for the songthrush is Turdus philomelos (stop sniggering at the back!), the philomenus part comes from the character Philomela from Greek mythology, "who had her tongue cut out, but was changed into a singing bird. Her name is derived from the Ancient Greek ???? philo- (loving), and ????? melos (song)."

Other names for the songthrush are throstle and mavis - I know this because of Tennyson's poem Claribel , which contains the wonderful line

The callow throstle lispeth

Whole poem here if interested.

Enjoy the rest of Sunday....