Ornithomancy

Woodpecker dreams, rain birds, and cuckoo luck.

Balthasar Friedrich Leizelt (I think)

Still life with woodpecker dreams

At some point in the last few years, I started dreaming of woodpeckers all the time. I don’t think all of my dreams are important or full of meaning (I don’t think there’s any good reason I had a Noel Edmunds sex dream, for instance, beyond my subconscious wanting to punish me for watching Deal or No Deal), but my woodpecker dreams feel different. Have you ever had someone talk to you in a language you couldn’t understand, but you can tell what they’re saying is urgent and important? That’s how my woodpecker dreams feel.¹

I don’t think I've ever dreamt of anything in my life as much as I have woodpeckers. Two nights ago I dreamt a barn owl, and then a flock of woodpeckers (not a flocky bird) flew over me, and a couple of weeks ago I dreamt a big black woodpecker (a kind we don’t even get here) and a bee² were outside my bedroom window. I’m not surprised I’ve been dreaming about woodpeckers in the last few weeks as I’m reading about them and thinking about them a lot, but I’ve read way more about cuckoos and haven’t had a single cuckoo dream, and like I said, this has been going on for a few years now.

Yes, you’re right it was very brave of me to open with 2 whole paragraphs about my dreams. Other people’s dreams have been universally acknowledged as one of the most boring topics of conversation, the difference of course is these aren’t other people's dreams, they’re mine.

I love woodpeckers but it’s not like they’re my favourite bird (that would be crows, closely followed by nightjars and curlews), and yet they’ve now become imbued with so much meaning that it feels significant when if I see or hear one even in my waking life. Towards the end of February this year, I had gone for a slightly stoned full moon walk, and when I sat on a bench to savour a satsuma, I heard the kek kek of a great-spotted woodpecker and then spied it on a branch through my binoculars. I asked out loud, “What do you mean?”. A three minute hailstorm came out of nowhere, and a rainbow appeared, but the woodpecker did not reply, so maybe all it meant was “the weather’s about to change.”

You might think I’m mad for expecting any guidance from the bird world, but I’m not alone, at least not historically. Romans looked to the avian kingdom to divine what the future might hold, and woodpeckers were the most esteemed of all the feathered auguries. The Roman author and naturalist Pliny the elder wrote about bird omens in his book ‘Historia Naturalis’.

There are some small birds also, which have hooked talons; the wood-pecker, for example, surnamed "of Mars," of considerable importance in the auspices…..

These birds have held the first rank in auguries, in Latium, since the time of the king who has given them their name. One of the presages that was given by them, I cannot pass over in silence. A woodpecker came and lighted upon the head of Ælius Tubero, the City prætor, when sitting on his tribunal dispensing justice in the Forum, and showed such tameness as to allow itself to be taken with the hand; upon which the augurs declared that if it was let go, the state was menaced with danger, but if killed, disaster would befall the prætor; in an instant he tore the bird to pieces, and before long the omen was fulfilled.

Woodpeckers have been pretty important to Italy in general. Romulus and Remus were fed by a woodpecker, and the ancient Italic Picente people were supposedly led to their land by a woodpecker, which is why a green woodpecker is the emblem of the Marche region of modern Italy.

Bird word nerd

The art of bird divination still exists, hidden in various words in the English language. I’m going to lay some etymology on you now, all directly quoted from one of my favourite websites; Etymonline. 

Auspicious - 1590s, "of good omen" (implied in auspiciously), from Latin auspicium "divination by observing the flight of birds," from auspex (genitive auspicis) + -ous. Related: Auspiciousness.

Augur - The more popular theory is that it is from Latin avis "bird," because the flights, singing, and feeding of birds were important objects of divination (compare auspex). In that case, the second element would be from garrire "to talk." Related: Augural; augurial.

Inauguration - "ceremonial investiture with office; act of solemnly or formally introducing or setting in motion anything of importance or dignity," 1560s, from French inauguration "installation, consecration," and directly from Late Latin inaugurationem (nominative inauguratio) "consecration," presumably originally "installment under good omens;" noun of action from past-participle stem of inaugurare "take omens from the flight of birds; consecrate or install when omens are favorable," from in- "on, in" (from PIE root *en "in") + augurare "to act as an augur, predict" (see augur (n.)).

Ornithomancy - "divination by means of birds," 1650s; see ornitho- + -mancy. Middle English had it as ornomanci (late 15c.). Related: Ornithomantic.

Sinister - The Latin word was used in augury in the sense of "unlucky, unfavorable" (omens, especially bird flights, seen on the left hand were regarded as portending misfortune), and thus sinister acquired a sense of "harmful, unfavorable, adverse." This was from Greek influence, reflecting the early Greek practice of facing north when observing omens. In genuine Roman auspices, the augurs faced south and left was favorable. Thus sinister also retained a secondary sense in Latin of "favorable, auspicious, fortunate, lucky."

Rain birds

It wasn’t just the ancient Italic people that looked to the woodpecker, or birds in general to see what the future might hold. In her 1899 book ’Animal and plant lore’ American folklorist and author Fanny D. Bergen wrote that in Alabama it was believed that if a woodpecker flew over the house then the inhabitants of that house would move soon, in Tennessee a woodpecker tapping on a house bode death in the family, and in Newfoundland if a woodpecker was drumming that foretold rain.

The people of the British isles were apparently also practicing orthinomancy even before the Roman invasion. 17th century English writer John Aubrey wrote that the woodpecker was “much esteemed by the Druides for divination”, and added “To this day the country-people doe divine of raine by their cry.” I don’t personally know anyone that uses bird calls instead of weather apps (I wish I did) to see if it’s going to rain, but that doesn’t mean that people don’t still do it. There is plenty of evidence that various bird calls were believed to portend rain well into the 20th century at least. The green woodpecker has all sorts of colloquial names that mean some kind of variation of ‘rain bird’, including rain bird, storm cock (Shropshire), Giessvogel (Germany, I think this translates to watering bird, but I used Google Translate), and Regnkrake (Denmark - rain crow).

All 3 of the birds I’m focusing on this month have a history of being used to divine the weather.

“Until the 1950s owls were routinely nailed to barn doors in France and the United Kingdom to ward off lightning and the evil eye. There is even evidence to suggest that these practices continue today in parts of rural Britain.” - James R Duncan in his book ‘Owls of the world.’

I live in rural Britain and I’ve never seen an owl nailed to a barn door, thank fuck, but I have seen a crow hanging on a shoelace noose in London and I don’t think that protects you from any kind of weather.

In Scotland the cuckoo can bring rain with it or a “gowk storm”, thus the old proverb

" In the month of Averel

The gowk comes over the hill

In a shower of rain."

In the French Alps, the cuckoo’s call was once used to predict the weather, but it depended on what direction it called; if it sung in the direction of the north, then there’d be rain the next day, but if it sung towards the south, there’d be fine weather.

Other British birds whose behaviour you can observe to see if it’s going to rain (if all the weather sites and news channels go down and you lose the ability to see clouds or feel damp in the air): Fieldfares (whose colloquial names include stormcock and storm bird), Blackbirds (when being “shrill”), Great tits (thanks), Swallows (if flying low), Chaffinches (whose name in Rutland was once Wet bird), Jackdaws (if standing on the vane of a cathedral tower), Rooks (if they go home in the middle of the day), and Herons (if they fly up and down restlessly).

Cuckoo luck

“There is no bird to which the gift of prophecy is more universally conceded than the cuckoo, whose clear and measured voice rings in the young foliage of the grove.” - Jacob Grimm

You can use the help of a cuckoo to find out how long you’re going to live, when you’re going to marry, who you’re going to marry, and what kind of harvest to expect.

• To find out how many years you have/have to be here - You can sing around a cherry tree “Cuckoo, cherry tree, How many years am I to live ? One, two, three." and then shake the cherry tree. The amount of cherries that fall down are the amount of years you have left. Alternatively you can just count how many times the cuckoo calls the first time you hear it in the spring, I feel like this is going to give you a significantly shorter lifespan than the cherry method but that might be reassuring if you’re winding down anyway.

• To find out when you’re going to get married -

  "When, in early springtime, the voice of the cuckoo is first heard in the woods, every village girl kisses her hand, and asks the question, ' Cuckoo ! Cuckoo ! when shall I be married ? ' and the old folks, borne down with age and rheumatism, inquire, ' Cuckoo ! when shall I be released from this world's care? ' The bird, in answer, continues singing ' Cuckoo ! ' as many times as years will elapse before the object of their desires will come to pass. But as some old people live to an advanced age, and many girls die old maids, the poor bird has so much to do in answering the questions put to her, that the building season goes by” - The folklore and provincial names of British birds.

• To find out who you’re going to marry - Okay so you actually only find out what colour hair they have but that’s better than nothing, maybe. When you hear the first cuckoo of the year you have to take off your shoe and sock on you left foot, and you should find a hair and that will be the colour hair your future partner will have. I forgot the specifics of this when I heard the first cuckoo of the year last week and looked on the bottom of my right boot and found nothing but mud.

• For harvest guidance -

  The Norfolk country-folk say that if, on the last week before he goes, the cuckoo keeps on the top of the oaks and makes a noise, it is the sign of a good harvest, but if he keeps on the lower branches, it is a bad sign. This mention of the oaks reminds us of Hesiod's statements that " when the cuckoo sings among the oak trees it is time to plough " ; and " that if it should happen to rain three days together when the cuckoo sings among the oak trees, then late sowing will be as good as early sowing. - The folklore and provincial names of British birds.

You can also make your own luck when you hear the first cuckoo call of the year: make sure you’re standing on soft ground and you’ll be generally lucky (if you’re standing on hard ground things will be calamitous though), turn your money in your pocket and you’ll have money all year, roll over in the grass when you hear it and you’re protected from lumbago (and fleas I think), run away as fast as you can and it will stop you from being lazy for a whole year, or you can just make a wish and it will come true.

1. If you have any thoughts on what my woodpecker dreams mean please message me. I’ve asked friends before, and read dream analysis books but nothing has resonated yet.

2. Ten years ago I had a dream that I married a bee ,and even though I drank bleach in this same dream it felt really important and prophetic too, so a woodpecker and bee in a dream feels like a big deal.