Michael Warren | Lightnews

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 20h

Ah @helenthev.bsky.social, so glad you’re reading it! Thank you, and happy Christmas.

Helen McKee @helenthev.bsky.social · 1d

Blissfully relaxed Boxing Day morning, watching tits visit the bird feeder opposite the kitchen window while I read @drmjwarren.bsky.social wonderful ‘The Cuckoo’s Lea’ 🐦🐦🐦

Copy of Michael Warren’s ‘The Cuckoo’s Lea: The Forgotten History of Birds and Place’ lying on a blue Formica table

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 2d

Hmm, never come across that interpretation, not in the original Old English anyway. It means the birds, or sometimes possibly a personal name, Finca.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 2d

A last one before Xmas. Bird place-name of the day 122: FINCHDEAN (Hants). OE finc + denu. ‘Finch valley’. No way of knowing which finches, but since it’s Xmas I’ll go with bramblings! Happy Xmas all. #PlaceNames #birdsandplace #naturewriting

OS map showing Hants village of Finchdean.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 2d

Most pleased to be in the this non-AI ‘top of’ list. 😁

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 2d

Stuff made by HUMANS that I've enjoyed this year. Post #3.

The Cuckoo’s Lea by @drmjwarren.bsky.social. Well written, evocative, and wears its erudition very lightly!

THE
CUCKOO'S
LEA
The Forgotten History of Birds and Place
Michael J. Warren
Hard to describe the very nice cover. Drawing of a cuckoo pinching eggs in the foreground. Red kite over countryside further back.

David Higgins @davidhiggins.bsky.social · 2d

Stuff made by HUMANS that I've enjoyed this year. Post #3.

The Cuckoo’s Lea by @drmjwarren.bsky.social. Well written, evocative, and wears its erudition very lightly!

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 3d

Oh that’s awesome. I mention now there aren’t any old curlew PNs in Old English. I’d love it if there was evidence for early origin for names like this.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 3d

Would love to know some of the field names.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 3d

A great book, but as you’ll see, not many bird place-names in it, compared to the equivalent in English anyway.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 3d

that there are for English PNs. A key point in my book was discovering the ancient origins, of course.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 3d

Thanks Julian. I do make a trip to Wales, as you’ll know, as I do to Scotland, just to show that bird PNs exist in these countries too! I hope someone does cover Wales’ bird PNs one day. The difficulty, as for Scotland again, and Ireland, is that there just aren’t the records for early provenance

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 3d

A lovely endorsement of my book. Thanks @penrhynbirder.bsky.social! 😁

Julian Hughes @penrhynbirder.bsky.social · 4d

Birds, etymology, Medieval history and a touch of cartography. All my geeky enthusiasms between two beautifully illustrated covers. Above everything, it's about place: ours and theirs.

Bravo, @drmjwarren.bsky.social, so well explained.

One day, perhaps someone will do the same for Cymru...

Front cover of The Cuckoo's Lea: the forgotten history of birds and place by Michael J Warren, featuring an illustration of a Cuckoo removing eggs from a nest, with a Marsh Harrier flying over the edge of a lake on which Cranes are feeding. In the distance a church tower and a line of trees suggests this depicts the edge of the Fens. This Cambridgeshire village derives its name from the Cuckoo's Lea.

Julian Hughes @penrhynbirder.bsky.social · 4d

Birds, etymology, Medieval history and a touch of cartography. All my geeky enthusiasms between two beautifully illustrated covers. Above everything, it's about place: ours and theirs.

Bravo, @drmjwarren.bsky.social, so well explained.

One day, perhaps someone will do the same for Cymru...

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 5d

This is the barn owl stained glass window in St Thomas’s Church at Harty on the Isle of Sheppey. Sure did hear those last night in the moments when I drifted in and out of sleep! #NightInAChurch #Sheppey #WinterSolstice

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 5d

Sunrise on the Harty Marshes, south Sheppey, after my night in a church out here. No better place to be on a winter’s morning. #WinterMarshes #Sheppey #WinterSolstice

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 5d

Morning everyone, made it through the night in the church on the Isle of Sheppey! Just been down to see the sun rise on the marsh. #Sheppey #marshes #solstice #nightinachurch

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 5d

More to come, but here’s a ghostly excerpt from my solstice night in a church on the marsh, just to broadcast something live, as it were. Here I explain the first inspiration for my adventure—Charles Dickens #NightInAChurch #WinterSolstice #IsleOfSheppey #DickensGhosts

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 6d

We’ll see Stuart! 😬

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 6d

Would you spend the night all alone in a tiny ancient church with no water or electricity, out on the marshes on the longest night of the year? Well, in the interests of my next book, that’s what I’m doing tonight. Updates to follow! #WinterSolstice #ChristmasGhosts #naturewriting #IsleofSheppey

St Thomas’s church, Harty, Isle of Sheppey.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 6d

Makes the essential point at the root of how we address the lack of connection to place in modern society: make homes and nature one and the same, FFS! As our old place-names tell us. Profit, of course, stands in the way, and governments who pander to the profit-makers, which is to say all of them.

Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 7d

“If Labour pits its housing targets against nature, it will find itself in a battle with the very thing that gives people a deep sense of pride and personal joy - when both feel in short supply.”

Wise words from @luketryl.bsky.social:

www.ft.com/content/f456...

Pitting Nimbys against Yimbys is a bad idea

www.ft.com

Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 7d

“If Labour pits its housing targets against nature, it will find itself in a battle with the very thing that gives people a deep sense of pride and personal joy - when both feel in short supply.”

Wise words from @luketryl.bsky.social:

www.ft.com/content/f456...

Pitting Nimbys against Yimbys is a bad idea

www.ft.com

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 7d

So place-names like Stinchcombe and Stinsford likely refer to a bird. Though not a sanderling for sure—they’re inland places by rivers, so maybe common sandpiper, but I’ve always thought stint could have maybe referred to the dipper too.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 7d

Indeed. Wish I could say it was Old English, but it’s probably relatively modern. The Anglo-Saxons did have the word stint, however, from the verb stintan (to shorten, stunt), and this was used as a name for some sort of waterbird, usually interpreted as sandpiper, to which family stints belong.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 7d

Because I saw yellowhammers today close to home, bird place-name of the day 121 is AMBERDEN (Essex). OE amer + denu. ‘Bunting/yellowhammer valley’. #birdsandplace #PlaceNames #naturewriting

OS map show Essex minor place-name, Amberden Hall.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 8d

www.manaboutcountry.co.uk 😄

Man About Country | Home | Great British Adventures

Man About Country is a blog celebrating the best of the Great British outdoors. Follow James for inspiration for your adventures, and tools to help you make the most of them.

www.manaboutcountry.co.uk

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 8d

Yeah, James is great. Check out his website.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 8d

No, not quite! ‘Ing’ can mean a number of things, “people or descendants of” being just one. The suffix of sanderling is ‘ling’ rather than ‘ing’. ‘Ling’ in names is a diminutive, so sanderling means “little sand thing” and brambling is “little bramble thing”. We don’t know how old those names are.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 10d

Bird place-name of the day 120: ERIDGE (Green), E. Ssx. OE earn + hrycg. ‘Eagle ridge’. White-tailed, specifically, which is back in Sussex now (saw them again on my last visit to my childhood home this weekend just gone). #PlaceNames #birdsandplace #naturewriting