Winter Games
Just before noon after a cold wet morning, the sun broke through, lighting the undersides of the towering clouds hung over the mountains, in an otherwise flat grey November sky.
And then they came - tumbling from the clouds - their calls echoing each other ...
sunlit clouds
capping the mountains
raven calling
Chasing, tumbling, up to thirty or so birds, soaring and spiralling up, until just small crosses in the sky, then falling, wings closed, only to shoot upwards again. Time and time again. Winter games.
A wonderful image and verse! Also, great to hear the Raven call.
Thanks Ashley! We’re lucky in that a pair breeds in some hilltop pines in sight of the kitchen – so we see and hear them daily. And Anglesey has one of the biggest roosts of Raven in the world – some 2000 birds!!
When the time is right, goodness knows when that will be, you will have to give me directions. I look forward to visiting Anglesey again!
I wish we had ravens here, they are such magnificent birds. A spare and beautiful piece.
They are beautiful birds much maligned over the years but can now be seen in almost any part of the country. Keep looking and who knows …
Ah, yes! Beautiful image! My solitary close encounter with a raven left me in awe of these birds. We rarely see them in the immediate neighbourhood but the rooks and crows offer similar sky dances. Always a joy
Thanks Sandra! My first sighting of a Raven was high up over Kit Hill, but since moving to North Wales I see them daily, and are often the first bird I hear on getting up!
This is lovely!
Thank you Cathy! At the beginning of the year I had an unwritten and largely unspoken target of writing at least one haiku a month – a haiku calendar – mostly I managed two! I sure don’t know how people manage to write them on a daily basis though 😊. All best
That’s a fantastic goal. And an almanac approach, with one or two a month, is wonderful! Congratulations! I certainly looked forward to each of your posts!
That’s very kind 😊
Nature at its best. Birds soaring against an ever changing sky. An incredible display
It was spellbinding. I’d never seen anything like it before, nor since!
I would love to see and hear ravens in the mountains – they seem to have such a timeless call.
Oh yes hearing them up in the mountains is something special – their calls echo off the rock face – often the only sound you’ll hear other than the wind or the occasional clatter of falling rocks. We’re lucky though I only have to go outside the back door to hear them as they fly over. We usually can count 5 at any one time.
Ravens play!!! I love it!! Beautiful haiku. I will display it in the Garden! Thanks, Clive!
[…] This hokku was composed by Clive Bennett, and can be found in his blog, Art In Nature. […]
Such a strange sound. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before.
In the mist up in the mountains it’s eerie and primeval. But down in the foothills where we live it’s altogether friendlier – like a dog barking. They have quite a vocabulary and I love hearing them as they fly over the garden.