Episode 1
· 13:18
Welcome to Nature Talks with Humans. In this first episode, we hear from Charlotte about a very special sparrow.
Charlotte:I'm Charlotte. I live in Coombe Bisset, and I'm an artist and sculptor, and I also work for Cranborne Chase National Landscape.
Estelle:How old were you when you came across the sparrow?
Charlotte:I must have been about 12. I remember what state sort of where I was going to different classes at my school, which would have meant we'd moved back from Germany to England the year before. So it would have been summer I was 12, I think.
Estelle:And how did you come across the sparrow?
Charlotte:We had a cat and a dog and a pear tree growing up the side of the house, and in the pear tree was a nest. And one day, I was walking past it, and there was this little bald chick lying under the pear tree. And because we had a cat, I had to pick it up, otherwise, it would have gone down the cat. And I just desperately wanted to rescue it. I wanted it to be okay.
Estelle:How old do you think it was?
Charlotte:Just out of the egg. It was just completely bald, not opening its eyes. It was like a a newborn, very, very new chick.
Estelle:And what did you do?
Charlotte:I put it in a little doll's cradle, a little wicker basket, with loads of blankets and stuff, and made a little nest for it. And I thought it was a boy for ages. I called him Partridge because he fell out of the battery. It turned out to be a girl, but I didn't discover that for a long time. And I didn't really know what to feed her.
Charlotte:This is before internet and stuff, so I mashed up worms and picked flies out of spiders' webs and after a while moved on to Weetabix. But it seemed to be alright. It seemed to keep her alive.
Estelle:Did you give her any water?
Charlotte:Yes. A little, I had a little dropper. No. No. I didn't.
Charlotte:I had a paintbrush, a tiny bottle and a paintbrush and drop drops of water onto her beak, and she'd because she'd open her beak for mummy bird to feed her, and then I'd just drop water in.
Estelle:How many times a day were you having to do this? It's mind boggling. It must have been constant. It must have been.
Charlotte:I took her to school, and I had her in this basket, which was reasonably big. It's about sort of about 10 inches long and about four or five inches wide, with a little sort of pram hood shape over the top. So it's quite big, and that was under my blazer. So I had her with me all the time, and would just feed her.
Estelle:Oh, at school? Or did you take the food and then they all Yeah. Toner?
Charlotte:Yeah.
Estelle:Oh, the dedication.
Charlotte:Well, I loved it.
Charlotte:I think I needed something to look after, and there she was. It was it was lovely, and I was besotted and wouldn't leave her alone, wouldn't sort of walk off and leave her anywhere. She was with me all the time. And she was quite vocal. She'd cheep really loudly, and I'd be there in my lessons with this bulb under my blazer, and she'd suddenly go, cheap.
Charlotte:It's like, and quickly work out what she wanted, whether it's food or water.
Estelle:That's amazing.
Charlotte:It was funny, and the staff must have all known and decided to pretend they didn't. Yeah. This is very sweet.
Estelle:Then how how long was it before she got feathers on her?
Charlotte:I can't remember. I don't know how long it takes. It was a few weeks. Probably less than six weeks. I don't know how long it takes.
Charlotte:I meant to have a look.
Estelle:That's such a lot of hard work, though. I mean, six weeks is quite a long time when you're essentially, a sparrow mummy on call. Yes. Maybe it was less than
Charlotte:that, but it it was, really exciting when she started to get feathers and sort of fluff to start with, and then, a bit later, proper feathers. Sort of grayish fluff to start with, I think. And then her eyes got really beady, and because she hadn't known anything else, she was completely fixed on me. And Then when she got a bit bigger, I was trying to help her get stronger so she could fly, and she didn't want to let go to start with, so she'd hold very tightly onto my finger, and I'd bring it down, so she had to flap her wings to keep her balance, and I'd keep doing that to sort of help her get her wings strong. And, then she got bigger, and she'd sort of sit on my shoulder and come back and fly around the room and come back.
Charlotte:And then eventually when she was fully adult, she flew into a tree. And the first time she came back, and then she did it again, and she didn't come back. And I knew that was the best answer, but it was I was still quite upset when she left. And, I have since tried to rescue other birds I found and never managed to, but it was very lovely to help one creature survive. And she came back the next year, next summer.
Charlotte:I don't know where she went over the winter, but she came into the kitchen, but she wouldn't touch anyone. She just came to look at us.
Estelle:Wow.
Charlotte:She might have had her own family.
Estelle:Most likely. Mhmm. Yep. That's it. It's an amazing story, Charlotte.
Estelle:When she was, when her character was developing, did you feel like you knew each other?
Charlotte:Yes. There's a sort of bond there because you're responsible for this little scrap, and she was sort of looking to me rather than anyone else in the house for her support. We definitely definitely kind of bonded. We didn't have long conversations in the way I do with my dog, but we would have chatted a bit. I'm sure I chatted to her all the time.
Estelle:And she must have chatted back?
Charlotte:She was. She was quite a GB. Yep.
Estelle:How sweet.
Charlotte:And she hopped. I called her Hoppy, which is not a good as name as Partridge, but she did hop. She hopped with both her feet at once, hopping around on the table.
Estelle:And did you sense when when she was grown up before she flew off to the tree the first time, did you, kind of sense that outwardness in her?
Charlotte:I kind of knew it had to happen. And in a way, I thought she might have been a bit reluctant too, because being with me was her safe place. I was very young, got no photos or anything.
Estelle:It's amazing how these things become so memorable. Mhmm. When you think about it, when you think about back to that time now, what types of things do you think of?
Charlotte:I just think how all my attention was on her. Mhmm. Trying to keep her as happy and healthy as possible. Other things around that time, new school, new location, moved from moved back from Germany, and it was sort of, that change was all quite difficult to, to sort of deal with and changes in people, changes in school. Mhmm.
Charlotte:So it was lovely to have an animal with a complete bond, even if it wasn't for that long.
Estelle:It probably seemed quite long at the time.
Charlotte:It did. Yeah. It did.
Estelle:Yeah. Because in that time scale it was quite long. When you told me about it, it really reminded me of, Claire Kip's Sparrow, which is a story that I came across and here's the book and it was about this woman, she did what you did. Yeah. She rescued a baby sparrow.
Estelle:Look. But the sparrow she rescued was a boy. Yes.
Charlotte:I can see you. It's in the bush.
Estelle:And she basically brought it up, and they had a really it stayed with her. So and I have a feeling that's something to do with the fact that he was a boy. Is that he kind of like,
Charlotte:So sweet, that picture.
Estelle:Yeah.
Charlotte:He's reading.
Estelle:And during the war time, she used to take the sparrow around and used to do all kinds of tricks during raids and things underground. They became really famous and then she wrote this book about it. And it's just quite extraordinary how their relationships and they're so sophisticated. Absolutely. Their relationship was completely two way and I think that was largely because he was a boy sparrow.
Estelle:And so he treated her like a girl sparrow.
Charlotte:That's really sweet. I don't know. I mean, I wonder if the girls have got more of an instinct to leave home and create their own family.
Estelle:And he stayed with her and he died of old age in the end?
Charlotte:There can't be many sparrows that died of old age.
Estelle:No. No. There can't, can there?
Charlotte:No. Oh, how lovely. Bread and milk. Yes. Mine had bread and milk.
Estelle:Really? How did you serve it in a little
Charlotte:Yeah. Just, I'd make a little pot of it and give her a spoon. Probably a silver one. But I wish I had photos of her, but I don't. None.
Charlotte:We didn't take any at the time.
Estelle:You know when she came back Mhmm. What were you guys doing?
Charlotte:We were just in the kitchen, sort of cooking or reading the paper or something. I think it was in the mornings, so it'd probably be breakfast time.
Estelle:And how did you recognize her?
Charlotte:The way she was, the way she sort of came up and was looking at us. And if she'd been if she hadn't known us, she would have been in more of a a panic, you know, when a trapped bird gets into the house. But she was sort of hopping about and investigating and sort of saying, Oh yes, when I was a chick I knew this. Oh. You've moved the butter.
Estelle:Oh, Charlotte. How lovely.
Charlotte:Yeah. You're all very lovely.
Estelle:What a wonderful thing to have done.
Charlotte:Yes. It's a nice little little gem to treasure. Mhmm. Just that bond with a a wild beast.
Estelle:But also it's the possibilities. Yeah. Isn't it?
Charlotte:Yes. It's very humbling. Yes. It is. Mhmm.
Charlotte:Yeah.
Estelle:I wonder how many, birds, how many sparrows you've saved.
Charlotte:How many descendants she has? Yeah. Hundreds. Well, maybe. Thousands.
Charlotte:Every sparrow we see in the world. They're all mixed up.
Estelle:Thank you so much, Charlotte, for telling me about that. It's really a wonderful story and heartwarming.
Charlotte:You're so welcome. It's nice to remember it.
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