The Heart of the Valley would die en route the following year. Her offspring also migrated though five of them also died but the one raised by the dunnocks survived. The mother dunnock died the following winter during a cold spell and was eaten by a fox. The surviving male dunnock mated the following year and had six offspring. The story ends with the writer taking a walk in the valley. The author once narrowly missed hitting a bird whilst driving to a railway station. On the train journey he imagined what might have happened if he hit the bird and it became the starting
Common sandpiper but is a vulnerable species in some states of Australia. Common sandpiper The common sandpiper ("Actitis hypoleucos") is a small Palearctic wader. This bird and its American sister species, the spotted sandpiper ("A. macularia"), make up the genus "Actitis". They are parapatric and replace each other geographically; stray birds of either species may settle down with breeders of the other and hybridize. Hybridization has also been reported between the common sandpiper and the green sandpiper, a basal species of the closely related shank genus "Tringa". The common sandpiper was one of the many bird species originally described by Linnaeus in