Frank Horsler Nature Notes

Biographical Details

My grandfather was born on 17th February 1891 at Sayell's Farm in Sundon, Bedfordshire. My memories of him stem from the latter part of his life, when he lived in Dunstable, where he died in 1975. He came from a Sundon family - my great-grandfather ran the village Post Office at Sayell's Farm until he died. Grandpa Frank had one brother, Harold, who died in 1923.

He married my Grandma Margaret ('Maggie') on 24th January 1917. I don't remember Grandma Margaret at all as she died when I was a baby. Shortly after marrying Maggie, my grandfather joined the Royal Engineers. He was posted to France and Belgium on the 10th March to fight on the Western Front towards the end of the First World War. He still managed to keep up his interest in natural history, collecting eggs and going on many nature rambles during his time in the Department Pas-de-Calais. We still have many of his rambling diaries complete with many pressed flowers and other memorabilia from his time as a soldier. On being de-mobbed on 11th November 1919, he returned to his home stomping ground and spent the majority of his working life at E.W. Hudson & Co Engineering Works in Luton.

Despite his career in Engineering, Grandpa Frank was an academic at heart. The notes for each clutch of eggs include a wealth of information about the plant life and moths and butterflies that he encountered while collecting. In addition to his encyclopaedic natural knowledge, he also quoted Shakespeare at will and had a fondness for Brer Rabbit! He wrote incessantly: nature notes, diaries, articles ... for himself and for others, it wasn't important. He was an extremely talented artist, his drawings accurate to the smallest detail, skills all of his grandchildren have inherited to varying degrees. I can only hope that this is some small way to commemorate those skills.

Thursday, 27 March 2008

Common Partridge (Perdrix cinerea) - (12) - England, 1927

Grass under a small patch of brambles and furze. This was just a tiny spot that had been spared by the fire, about 2 yards square, and all around was black ashes. I should not have found it but for the bird leaving.

Saw swallow alight several times on the burnt surface. Could not see what for. Linnet with hard set eggs, song thrush with eggs. These partridge eggs helped to make nice cake.

Studham Common, Studham, Bedfordshire, June 12th.

Whitethroat (Sylvia cinerea) - (4) - England 1927

Blackthorn among furze and brambles. 3ft high.

This is a fine, large common, and Studham is a very small out of the way village. About half of the common has been recently burned and the new bracken shoots are not yet unfolding, so that it looks a dreary fire scorched waste. I saw where the nest of a pheasant had been burned. At junction of _______, Kensworth, Studham, Markyate Roads, I caught a fair specimen of Red Admiral, and took newly emerged Cinnabar Moth from roadside. Saw Small Skipper and Common Blue, and many Silverground Carpet Moths. Found wild strawberries almost ripe. Many nests in hedgerows. Leslie Goodman came with me, and we had a very enjoyable ramble under summerlike conditions.

Studham Common, Studham, Bedfordshire, June 12th.

Song Thrush (Turdus musicus) - (4) - England, 1927

Wild rose in mixed hedge. Gipsy Lane. 2.5ft high.

In this nest were 3 normal eggs and 1 very small egg, about as large as the egg of a yellowhammer. This is the first freak egg I have found of this species. Found the nest of a chaffinch very prettily placed in a fork of maple about 5ft from the ground, which contained 2 eggs.

Sundon, Bedfordshire, June 11th.

Linnet (Linota cannabina) - (2) - England, 1927

Hawthorn in mixed hedge. Deserted nest. Gipsy Lane. 5ft high.

Many blackbirds and song thrushes still with fresh eggs.

Sundon, Bedfordshire, June 11th.

Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) - (5) - England, 1927

Blackthorn. Hedgeside with other rank herbage, mixed hedge, Gipsy Lane (The Icknield Way). 2.5ft high.

This portion of the old Roman Road was a favourite hunting ground of my boyhood, and many a pocketful of speckled treasures have I brought home from it on a Saturday morning. We were always a little bit nervous on account of the gipsies who used to camp along the grassgrown track. Saw wood pigeon nest in maple about 10ft high, and a broken egg on the ground underneath. Many Silverground Carpet Moths on wing, and along the Leagrave-Chalton Road found several nests of linnet etc. from fledge young to fresh eggs.

Sundon, Bedfordshire, June 11th.

Little Owl (Athene noctua) - (3) - England, 1927

Hole in dead trunk of common elm in hedgerow, near to Rangley's Spinney. There is only the stump left of this tree, which was once a large one, and the hole was about 9ft from the ground. The bird sat very close, and had difficulty in making it leave the hole. The little owl frequently nests here in this hole. Gussie got the eggs for me, as my hand was too large to get in the hole, and his just managed it.

One eggs was smalller than the others, and was fresh, one of the others was much incubated, and one slightly. This place is quite near to Markham Hills, on which I found the nest of a green woodpecker in the broken off stump of what had been a large beech tree. Two holes had been bored in the rotting wood, and the bird was sitting in the top hole not many inches away, and about 12 to 14ft high. Could not make the bird leave, and had nothing with which to get the eggs, so had to leave them. On the hill slopes were Green Hairstreak, Griggled Skipper, Dingy Skipper, Common Blue, Small Heath, Brimstone, Green Veined Whites, Orange Tip, Wall, Small Copper and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies. Took one Cistus Forester moth and moth caterpillars from wild rose and hawthorn. Rock rose in full bloom, also saw first wild roses in bloom at foot of hills.

Streatley, Bedfordshire, June 5th.

Common Partridge (Perdrix cinerea) - (8) - England, 1927

Grass with one or two stinging nettles, hedgeside. Green Lane leading from the New Bedford - Luton Road to Warden Hills, near foot of Warden Hills, near to Great Bramingham.

Several nests of Greenfinch also found here. In company with Leslie Goodman (Gussie). This seems a very small clutch for this bird.

Warden Hills, Bedfordshire, June 5th.