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

Autumn Rooks, Long-tailed Tits and a White Swan

 

Rooks in a red field

Shaved of its corn. Forage! Fight!

Beaks glean Autumn light

 

Late evening calls, hark!

The long-tailed tits sing and flit

In warm company

 

White swan in the rhyne

Wings against a white skyline

Singing the old songs

Herons and Swans

Herons

Still heron, woven

Into the weft of the reeds

Designs on small fish

Long neck poised, beak sharp

Black-flecked greybeard ruffles breeze

Eyes pierce the stream's heart

In the flooded field

Looking glass lake reflects his

Elegant attire

Five Swans

Five grey swans fly low

Wings lift the cold, lead sky up

Over the Levels

Swans in the Snow at Fairmeadow

Slender necks reflect
Swans swimming as snowflakes swirl
White hearts on river

Swans on the River at Dusk

Millpond reflections
Of the swans, cygnets now grown
Into grey shadows