July Birds

 

Five bluetits flit past
Green as apples on the branch
Old orchard; new life

 

The buzzard circles
Finding a thermal. Freed from
Our mortal scope now

 

Wells

Moorhen mother sits
Surrounded by Saint’s waters
Patient protectress

This Year's Birdbox Nest

This year a pair of House Sparrows chose to raise their noisy chicks in one of our birdboxes, visible from our kitchen window. The most entertaining and enchanting family to observe and the silence, now they have fledged, is palpable. We think there were at least two chicks but we missed them fledging so there could well have been more. 

The Sparrow Box

Sparrow parents spin
Frantic food dash, fly, fly, bug
Woodlouse for lunch, yuk!

Godzilla and Bro
That’s what I nicknamed the pair
Roaring for food now

Empty Nester

A quiet kitchen
You have fledged, nest-box now cold
Little sparrows flown

Swifts over the Garden

Two swifts, sickle-sharp
Are honed on a whetstone sun
High in a June sky

On a Sunday walk and early this morning.

Stubble-field ballet
Swallows swoop and weave round bales
Bravo! More! Encore!

Egret overhead!
White yacht on a blue sky tide
Fair winds for flying

Ham Wall, July 2023

Bittern

Bittern; subtle brown
feathers flying past the hide
Herringbone beauty

 

Egret

Feather tutu flies
Musical winds wafting wings
Jete! Jete! Glide!

 

Swans

In the green canal
Among the waterlilies
White sails drifting by

Graceful necks bending
Low to kiss their reflections…
Pondweed slurps instead!

 

Cormorant

Sky hatchet cutting
A swathe of leaden landscape
Skewering reedbeds

Jays

Just so much gossip
In the branches overhead
Two jays chat at lunch

 

Marsh Harrier

Broad wings weave the wind
Around a stand of willows
While rain clouds billow

On finding the remains of a starling in the garden

 

Cold on paving slab
A corpse of feathers & bones
Falcon’s dinner plate

 

I will draw you, now
Since you were drawn out by death
A sketch with no song

Ham Wall Haiku

These are from a recent trip to RSPB Ham Wall in Somerset, a beautiful reed-bed wetland.

 

Egret

The serene glide, low

Against the umber reed bank

Egret sails the wind

Woodpecker

Highest perch to hear

The wind pick up my holler!

Woodpecker’s beat poem

Mute Swan

This fine furled feather

Eloquently writes my frame

No swansong for me

 

Robin

A lone fisherman

Patient water margins wait

Red flag for dragonflies

Marsh Harrier

Bronzed sky warrior

Outstretched wings beat down clouds

Rain bringer arrives

******

Egret

'Mirror, mirror on

The floor, who has the longest

Neck of all. Why me!'

Christmas Holiday Haiku 2019/2020

Near Stonehenge

Still as standing stones
Sentinel of the circle
Buzzard on fence post

Near Greylake

Fields; silver flood plain
All awash with wading birds
A lake of Lapwings

Near Glastonbury

A strange shimmer runs
Fractal fields shifting. Weird sight
As starlings settle

Swans, Herons and Starlings

Two Swans

Wrapped in sheets of mist

Two swans sleep; waiting for snow

Winter’s white duvet

Two Herons

Mid-air pas de deux

A pair of herons dance by

Encore! Encore! More!

Two Thousand Starlings

Overhead, at dusk

Two thousand wings whispering

This way. This way home.

Spring Garden Birds

In the green embrace

Of a Spring garden, birds dance

Singing in delight

Here, now, the first calls

From the eaves, fast wings flash past

New life needs feeding

Wagtails and Starlings

Two Territorial Wagtails

Steam from frosty fence

Rises, as tempers flare hot

Wagtails flip the bird

Starlings at Dusk

Starlings spread a quilt

Of sunset gold, pink and blue
Murmuring the moon

Blackbirds and a Red Kite

The Blackbird

The hedge brambling bird

Quietly picks a path through

Tangled branch and fruit

On finding a blackbird, unexpectedly

Bright eye catches mine

Yellow-bladed beak and claw

Daggers drawn, retreat!

Red Kite

Caught in the willows 

A call hollows out the wind

Crying solitude

Jackdaws

The Cherry Picker

Silver hooded stealth

Picks fruit just ripening red

Enough to eat, shoo!

Glastonbury Abbey

Above the old ruins

Rising in a slow spiral

Jackdaws dance at dusk

Jackdaws

Soft silvery hoods

Drawn high over hunched shoulders
Jackdaws call matins

Garden Birds

Paparazzi snaps
Ringside seat for the feeders
Breakfast with the birds


Click here for photos from the bird feeder in the garden today.

Garden birds

After the storm, sun

And food for the garden birds

It's Spring for a day!

(Click on the photos for a larger view)

Jay

Dunnock

Blue tit

Greenfinch

Greenfinch & Great tit

Greenfinches

Robin