A Passion for Birds
I turned the page. [...] “I have amazing news for you – and indeed for every bird-lover in the country,” he whispered. [...] It was my first day at Junior school and I had picked a book from the library shelves to read. An adventure story about Bee-eaters. It was September 1957.
Fast forward around six decades and from Bath to North Wales ...
The Cry of a Gull - Cameos of Birdlife #6
I woke to the cry of a passing seagull - his call tossed about in the gusty wind - ‘flee, flee Jack, flee’1. For a moment I am a child again, at the seaside, in Cornwall. Gulls calling all around. But here in the foothills of Snowdonia we are more used to hearing the throaty ‘kronk’‘kronk’ of Raven and the ‘mewling’ of Buzzard. Perhaps I was dreaming ...
Sounds of Silence - Cameos of Birdlife #5
The snow has gone now but in the last few days before spring the snow blew in with a vengeance - walking up the lane, my footsteps the only sound; my footprints just a shadow. But then a Wren sang ...
A Song Thrush Sings - Cameos of Birdlife #4
It’s early morning. Still dark. A pale moon hangs in the sky as the pre-dawn light rims the nearby mountains. A Buzzard mews; an owl hoots from the nearby woods. As the garden trees take shape a Song Thrush breaks into song - hesitantly at first; but then full and vibrant - lost in its own joy of singing ...
Travellers Joy - Cameos of Birdlife #3
The frost today is everywhere - a heavy hoar frost covering the fields and hedges; all a sparkle in the early morning winter sun. In the hedgerow, a restless, roving party of Long Tailed Tit weave through frosted beards 1 ...
