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 redpoll a further thirteen days. Common redpoll The common redpoll ("Acanthis flammea") is a species of bird in the finch family. It breeds somewhat further south than the Arctic redpoll, also in habitats with thickets or shrubs. The common redpoll was listed in 1758 by Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his "Systema Naturae" under the binomial name "Fringilla flammea". The current genus name "Acanthis" is from the Ancient Greek "akanthis", a name for a small now-unidentifiable bird, and "flammea" is the Latin for "flame-coloured". The common redpoll was previously placed in the genus "Carduelis". Molecular phylogenetic studies showed that the