Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes May 13 2009

Scientists say that is rubbish. Why then did the green woodpeckers on my patch bray like donkeys last month as the Atlantic low loomed way beyond the Isle of Wight? They were not so vocal before.

But I also noticed how the nightingale, the mistIe thrush, and all the other 40 different song birds tuned up as the humidity changed.

The French are certain of the woodpecker's weather forecasting, since it calls "pleu-pleu-pleu". The Danes call it Regncrake, which means Raincrow. In Austrian, it is Regen Vogel, or Rain-bird. American Indians have the same name.

This is all folklore on a global scale, but all derived from separate sources. Aborigines, Ancient Greeks, Romans and Druids all beheld the woodpecker with awe. It was an oracle of Mars. It was a thunderbird too, since it made a warning drumroll like the storms preceding rain. Scholars say that the folklore of the rainbird became widespread during the 3,000 years of wet weather which ended in 2,000BC.

Woodpeckers acquired many other names apart from Rainbird. One of these was Woodwale. Wale is a corruption of weal, a bright red raised stripe. That is exactly what the green woodpecker has for a crest.

Another name was Awlbird. An awl is a sharp spike for splicing, like the woodpecker's beak. Popinjay? A noisy, tiresome, brightly adorned, chattering person. Tonguebird? The tongue of the woodpecker is incredibly long, gathering ants like a whip. Gaily? This was a person who wore one down with annoying behaviour '“ just as a woodpecker drills everlastingly into a tree boring a hole until it gets what it wants.

Paint pot simply describes the green, yellow, red and grey plumage of the green woodpecker which seems to have gone in for home decoration. Crankbird describes the way it turns its head around, but Hickwall and Hickway? I cannot decipher those.

Witwall is a corruption of wittol, an acquiescent cuckold who puts up with his wife's infidelity. It was thought that cuckoos laid eggs in woodpecker's nests.

In 1,000 years from now, names won't mean a thing. All will be replaced by symbols, or numbers. Each species will have a code based on DNA, global distribution, value to humans. Woodpecker? Rainbird? What was that?