August Birds during the Heatwaves

Sparrows

From the hedgerow, flee!
A flock of fast sparrows flaunt
The field’s dry despair

Grey Heron

Three grey herons fly
Grey flags over grey rooftop
Fanfare for new life

 

The Summer Seagulls

This year, two gull chicks
Speckled pebbles on the ground
By factory door

You sent me photos
Each week, while seagulls watched them
Turn to grey goblins

Shrieking banshee birds
Surviving the heat, the dry
To fully fledge and fly

Summer seagulls swoop
Overhead. Their cold cry cuts
Goodbye, goodbye, Bye!

Kestrel

Heatwave ends today
Morning rainstorm, break cover
Brown graze of feathers

Long-Tailed Tits

Notes ring, raindrop song
Through wet boughs ten long-tailed tits
Sing sweet harmonies

 

Cattle Egret

Intricate weaving
Across a loom of late grass
Egrets thread cow herd

Apricot hair comb
White feather boa, black silks
Fine for a field day

A line of cattle
Punctuated by white birds
Full stop, comma, dash

 

June and July

Red Kite

The river, bridged by
A road and a red kite, marks
The confluence point

 

Wood Pigeon

Gathering twigs, you
Build a willow tree house in
View from my window

Seagulls

Three seagulls scull by
One calling ‘Stroke!’ as they fly
A blue summer sky

Swallows

Swallows turn sharply
Sizing up the summer fields
Wing spans set square now

 

Swifts

Above the house, there!
The needle song of swift flight
Threading through the sky

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

Barn Swallows near Glastonbury Tor

A sight for sore eyes

No wing more uplifting than

Summer’s first swallow

May Bank Holiday Birds

Swallow

Wandering minstrel

Plucks a tune from a blue sky

Air on a up-draft

Swifts

Now the sky, blue bowl

Rings with your shrill cry; returned!

Brimful with summer

Swifts and Sparrows

Swifts overhead

A glint of metal

Catches my eye, high in sky

Palette knife paints blue

Sparrow Lane

Street theatre in tree

Leaves shake with laughter, cheep! cheep!

Sparrows tell rude jokes

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.

Swans on the river

On silver water

Four soft grey cygnets swimming

While parents swan by

Swallows above the green wheat fields

Keen steel blue wings slice
Paper-cut  thro' the green wheat
Wheeling on the wind