October Starlings

 Starlings

This morning’s laundry
Already flapping in breeze
Starlings on a line

 

In the grey rainlight
A steady drizzle of wings
Storm clouds of starlings

On a day trip to Weymouth in October

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Starlings on power
Lines; two lanes of traffic queued
Waiting to arrive

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Seagulls billow up
White and grey rollers breaking
Over ploughed brown field

Buzzard, bare legs bent
On telephone pole
Meditating now

 

Lodmoor

Heron feather-cloak’d
Skims the scrubland with black wings
Fashionably late

 

Weymouth Seafront

Wagtail, dapper chap
Dip and bow to you too, Sir!
Waterline parade

 

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A pair of kites hang
High above the hilltop here
Taut in the updraft

A magical sight
As a merlin lands nearby
Eyes mesmerised now

 

Near the River Brue

Two swans, a poem
Written in a rhyne, gently
Drift in dusk’s warm light

 

September Birds

 

Flying Ducks

Above us fly ducks
Sixteen silhouetted shapes
On a wall of sky

 

Long-tailed tits and great tits

A little storm flies
Through the garden; whirlwind calls
And lightning flash wings 

House martins

I watch from the door
House martins drawing sky signs
A language of wings

August Birds

Barnstaple

Brent Geese fly; as stark
As the roundabout stones stand
Against the blue sky

 

Magpie

Striped youth, still callow
Finding berries flutters high
Into sapling tree

 

Little Egret

On Bridgewater road
Origami bird flies past
Legs folded, wings shaped

Updated versions of both paperback and eBook for 2025

Swifts in June

Eight swifts winging it
Free-wheeling in the blue zone
Feathered rocketeers

Sparrow fledgelings, swifts, woodpecker

I am bereft. Now
My view, an empty nest box
Sparrows fully fledged

 

Two swifts returned and
How they wheel to Summer’s June
Dancing their duet

Green woodpecker swoops
Low; the grass shawl of the Tor
Wraps summer ’round her

Spotted on a trip to London

In a Field

Twenty pheasants have
A sporting chance now winter
Has turned into Spring

Red kites hovering
Almost still as we rush past 
Train-bound to London

Great Bustard?

On a chalk ploughed hill
I glimpse a giant bird. Wait…
Did I just see that? 

The fish pond, brimfull
A mirror for morning light
Heron reflects there

Into London

Leafy suburbs pass
Trees home for two woodpeckers
Woodland corridor   

On the Thames today
Two swans wend their way past boats
And mud larks; low tide!

Wren, Starlings and Magpie

Wren

I hear you singing
Through the window, you reach me
With a bright Spring song 

Starlings

Two shiny green birds
Ornaments on bare branches
Winter-jewelled tree

Over flooded fields
The flock ripples out. Black boats
Fish on the dawn tide

Magpie

Wings in, arrow flight
Look at you, surfing sunlight!
Soon beached on tree branch  

Big Garden Birdwatch 2025

I counted you up

Each vital wing a prayer:

Nature’s abundance

Goldfinch and Buzzard

Seventeen goldfinch
In the magnolia tree
Fresh buds, bright faces

Before Storm Eowyn

Jackdaw alarm calls!
Above me; silent brown wings
Buzzard, storm bringer

January 2025

Starlings


7.45 am
Iron clouds roll, I spot them!
A fleet of starlings

Stretched as thin as air
Starling flock returns to floods
From yesterday's rain

Heron and Little Egret flying past on walk

Overhead; look up!
Awkward neck crick, gangly legs
Birds and birdwatchers

Magpies, Crows and Jackdaws

Magpies in a tree
Six or seven, more maybe
Secret to be told

He feeds them. Walking
The lanes, Tor bound, beautiful
World waking up. Here

Garden Birds

In the willow twigs
Sweet garden song of robin
For the New Year now

All manner of small:
Long-tails, Chatter-spats, Dundills
Sparries, Jenny Wren