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

Spring Birds in Somerset

April evening at Bishop’s Palace, Wells

Pen and her cygnets
Evening light on calm water
Following her home

Three cygnets softly
Surf the moat; silver-rippled
By willow weeping

Early May Bank Holiday

A pair of swallows
Perched on the telephone line
Calling they’ve arrived

 

A crow overhead
Ruffles of black silk flying
In the warm Spring breeze

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

A buzzard and some swallows

The Buzzard Above

Circling high above

A slow Ferris wheel ride; free

In carnival skies

Soulful Autumn blues

A crisp air and slow tempo

Solo turn on stage

A singular truth:

To know the limitless sky

Wing and a prayer

Swallows along Cinnamon Lane

The lane (bursting ripe

Hedgerows laden with late fruit)

Is your flightpath home

Crane flies, mosquitoes

Wasps, fruit flies, midge and darter

Alfresco mixed grill…

A flash of summer!

Then two more; swallow wings dip

The deepening lane

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

Walking along the Medway at High Tide

Oystercatcher

Red legs gingerly

Step from stone to stone seeking

An oyster supper

Swallows on the Medway High Tide

Oil-sheen blue feathers

Reflect in the full blown glass

Skimming the high tide

In tight formation

Tail feather streamers flash past

Six swallows sky dive

Black Headed Gulls at Riverside (Medway)

Punctuating rocks

They string out along the banks

Full stops for the tide

A sky boomerang

Returning on warm currents

Cuts the wide river

Ducks, Swallows & Rooks

Bedgebury Pinetum Ducks

In puddles of shade
With one eye on the picnic

Snoozing ducks paddle

Marden Swallows

The violin cry

Winged bow across taut June sky

Roof top soloist

Rook

Fractured shadows cast

By cold wings through the pine trees

Needle sharp eyes search

Swallows above the green wheat fields

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