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Michael J. Warren

@drmjwarren.bsky.social

820 followers 860 following 430 posts

Writer, naturalist, medievalist, teacher. Trustee of Curlew Action. The Cuckoo’s Lea, Bloomsbury, out now: birds in our ancient and modern senses of place. Marshes. Winter. Whisky. https://linktr.ee/cuckooslea www.birdsandplace.co.uk

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Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · May 25

Well, here it is. My copy arrived. Out 5th June. This is the beautiful indie-exclusive edition with it’s gorgeous sprayed edges. Thanks ever so @amyjanebeer.bsky.social, Mary Colwell and @jon-moses.bsky.social for your generous cover quotes. @chiffchat.bsky.social #naturewriting

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

Bird place-name of the day 95: HARLOW HILL (Northumb). OE higera + hlaw. ‘Magpie-frequented hill/mound.’ #birdsandplace #naturewriting

OS map image showing Harlow Hill in Northumbria.

Reposted by Michael J. Warren

Nicola Chester @nicolawriting.bsky.social · 4d

Another wonderful review in a matter of hours!

Chelsea Green Publishing @chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social · 5d

@nicolawriting.bsky.social writes with poetic intensity, painting indelible portraits of local people and landscape, but at the same time she asks pertinent questions, reflecting on where our society is going...A joy to read."
morningstaronline.co.uk/article/when...

When women work the land

Ghosts of the Farm: Two Women’s Journeys Through Time, Land and CommunityNicola Chester, Chelsea Green, £22FOLLOWING her award-winning On Gallows Down — a passionate and very personal account of life ...

morningstaronline.co.uk

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Reposted by Michael J. Warren

Nicola Chester @nicolawriting.bsky.social · 5d

Well, blimey; made up with this fantastic & insightful review from @resolutereader.bsky.social

Martin Empson @resolutereader.bsky.social · 5d

My latest book review looks at @nicolawriting.bsky.social's wonderful "Ghosts of the Farm". It tells the story of Julia White, a woman farmer in the 1940s, together with Nicola's own story and ponders land, gender, politics and much more. Read it.
resolutereader.blogspot.com/2025/10/nico...

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

Day birding in Storm Amy’s winds @rspbtitchwellsnett.bsky.social. A great selection of books in their shop, including, ahem, yours truly. #thecuckooslea #naturewriting

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

Here’s a nightingale I filmed in April this year, at Fingringhoe in Essex close to where I live.

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

OS map showing Nightingale Wood in Hampshire

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

Bird place-name of the day 94: NIGHTINGALE WOOD (Hants). Modern English Nightingale + Wood. In the absence of any old nightingale place-names, but because I’m talking about nightingales and place tonight in Bainton for the Langdyke Trust, here’s a modern example. #birdsandplace #naturewriting

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

Why are there no old NIGHTINGALE place-names? Come and find out tonight in Bainton, plus hear me talk about Castor Hanglands, the most northern site for breeding nightingales in England. Tickets still available on the door! langdyke.org.uk/welcome-to-l... #nightingales #birdsandplace #naturewriting

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

10th century charter, I mean

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 11d

Bird of the place-name 93: RAMSDEAN (WSsx). OE hramn + denu. ‘The raven’s valley.’ Close to where I grew up, just outside Worthing. Near a Roman site and Iron Age Cissbury. Mentioned in a 10th charter. #birdsandplace #naturewriting

OS map show Ramsdean, just outside Findon in West Sussex.

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Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 19d

Obviously loving this chapter @nicwilson.bsky.social. “These names send me back through the centuries.” 😁 #naturewriting

Page from Nic Wilson’s Land Beneath the Waves.

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Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 19d

No record. A modern name I expect (by which I mean not medieval). But it means the place for talking associated with crows. Were the crows real (a chatter of jackdaws or rooks perhaps?) or metaphorical: a derogatory reference to dark gossip? I speculate!

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Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 19d

Since I’m in Ely (Eel place or island) let’s make bird place-name of the day 92: FOWLMERE. OE fugol + mer. Wildfowl pool/wetlands. Only 23 miles from Ely and part of the same former fenlands. #birdsandplace #naturewriting

OS map showing Cambridgeshire village of Fowlmere.

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

This evening I’m at Toppings in Ely. Hope to see you there! #thecuckooslea #naturewriting

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 26d

Just a week until I’m at Toppings Books in Ely! Couldn’t be better: Ely cathedral and it’s old marshes is on the front cover of #thecuckooslea! Details and tickets here: www.toppingbooks.co.uk/events/ely/w... #birdsandplace #naturewriting

Michael J Warren at First Floor, Topping & Company Booksellers of Ely

www.toppingbooks.co.uk

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Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 21d

That’s really great to know Ian; gives even more credence to the name. I just love the idea that our ancestors had topographical imagination enough to visualize landscapes from a bird’s-eye-view centuries before aerial photography and compare geological form metaphorically! Blows my mind.

Reposted by Michael J. Warren

Ian Tattum @iantattum.bsky.social · 22d

I have been looking into the name Purbeck @drmjwarren.bsky.social and am wondering if it is at all possible that the origin is Bittern Hill.
Bearing in mind that it had extensive marshland around a navigable chalk ridge when the Saxons first explored it in the C7th.🤔

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Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 22d

Yes indeed Ian, that is the usual interpretation in place-name books. I think I mention this briefly in chapter 6 of TCL. It parallels names like Wulpenbek in Holland (piece of land shaped like a curlew’s beak or where curlews are seen’.

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Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 25d

*its. Darn autocorrect!

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 25d

Some do, yes. 😉 There won’t have been nightingales at this site before the estate was built (farmland), but the name is typical, in that nature names are more common than anything else in new build estates. But they’re chosen to sound pretty. Old names always reflect the ecological reality.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 25d

A great example of birds in new build naming schemes. From the brand new estate literally across from my house, built right on the edge of the River Blackwater in Essex. No nightingales here, new owners. #birdsandplace

A new house for sale, named The Nightingale.

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Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 26d

Michael J Warren at First Floor, Topping & Company Booksellers of Ely

www.toppingbooks.co.uk

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Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 27d

If you want examples of lots of places actually named after birds in situ, I’ve just finished cataloguing the crow page on my website: www.birdsandplace.co.uk/carrioncrow

Carrion crow — The Birds and Place Project

www.birdsandplace.co.uk

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 27d

You’re right enough, goldcrests are common enough in gardens that this is likely, especially if there’s conifers. I suspect that the road won’t have been named after real, present goldcrests! Was more pointing up the contrast to old bird names, which are always a reflection of ecological truth.

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Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 27d

If they were, I’m quite sure the developers who named it weren’t actually aware of their former presence.

Michael J. Warren @drmjwarren.bsky.social · 28d

Any goldcrests in Goldcrest Drive, do you reckon? #birdsandplace

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