Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Feathers

This is the time of the year for flocks. Yesterday I watched a great gathering, a charm of at least 100 goldfinch. There are chaffinch and whirling starlings like smoke. Bell voiced linnets thread the sky like musical notes. No greenfinches yet, and in the time of have lived here the yellowhammers have gone. Jackdaws and rooks gather in raucous murders. Sparrows are loud and bluetits group as at night they cuddle in warm places, holes in walls, sometimes in hundreds, small balls of bird dreams keeping out the cold.
Soon there will be fieldfare and redwing and curlews calling and lapwings.
Then it will be winter.

4 comments:

  1. Ooh! This sounds glorious...life like a poem!

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  2. Sounds beautiful! Flocks of birds are so amazing to watch.
    And I love feathers...I have a jar in my studio full of feathers & driftwood.
    I keep asking our resident magpies if they will let me have one of thier beautiful shiny feathers for my shamanic collection...but alas, they just chatter & laugh at me! :)

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  3. Glad to have found your blog. this is my first visit and I read several of your posts. delightful.
    Johnina :^A

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  4. I love the names for groups of birds... a murder of rooks reminds me of Macbeth - the raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements.

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