On the east side of St Mary’s church, within a shimmering dome of spray, you’ll find Hitchin’s most resourceful residents. Here, in the middle of the River Hiz, a pair of moorhens have sought sanctuary on the base of the Sir Ian Dixon memorial fountain.
It’s not the first time that common moorhens (Gallinula chloropus) have favoured this spot. At the beginning of the first Covid lockdown, a pair (likely the same birds as they are faithful to location, if not always to their mates) built a socially distanced nest on the fountain plinth and raised two broods. Since then, the plucky duo have returned several times. A couple of years ago, they even attempted to nest on the base despite newly installed anti-moorhen spikes. Using the protruding prongs as their warp, they wove a platform with a weft of dead sticks in a Dadaist piece of performance art depicting the resilience of nature.
In a more rural area, they might have chosen a site in marginal vegetation or a waterside tree such as willow, for they are capable, if ungainly, climbers – occasionally nesting as high as eight metres above the ground. But in urban environments, moorhens are canny opportunists, making good use of the things that they find: timber pilings, punts, old tyres, upturned car bumpers and, in 2015, a shopping trolley partially submerged in the river.
Last week, however, after torrential rain, the swollen river swallowed the plinth. Undeterred, the moorhens splashed into action. Their platform (now a houseboat) became a top-floor flat, then a tower with ivy-leaf crenellations even flying a Greggs wrapper flag for a time. And now, sitting proud of the water on her green turret, the female flirts her white undertail coverts, flicking beads of water from her glistening back, while her mate presents her with pine twigs, leaves and Haribo packets for further home improvements.
The antics of Hitchin’s moorhens have featured in the local paper and on social media. And while they’re not the rarest, fastest or most melodious of birds, if you watch a pair nest-building, you might be surprised by what they do with the things that we everyday folk leave behind.
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