Bretherton Eyes

A magical name - and we were all eyes as we assembled at a very frosty 9am watching thousands of woodpigeon depart the woods fanning the icy breeze. (If you click on the photo, you'll see we all had a dozen layers on!)Fieldfare, redwing, song thrush, nuthatch and many more fluttered around the wooded lane. When we reached the Mean High Water embankment, we looked down on flat, open fields (many of them deeply ploughed) and threw up flocks of singing larks, meadow pipits, a few lapwings, heron, kestrels hunting and more. A kingfisher perched in the grass by a water channel.

Into Back Lane, we were greeted by Dartmoor(?) ponies. Gary pointed out a brown lying low with ears down well camouflaged in a field. A small flock of yellow hammers flitted over and obligingly perched in a nearby hedge along with some goldfinch.

Back in Eyes Lane, some beaters returned and a dozen red-legged partridge ran into the safety of an off-limits field just as the shots began...

Thanks to Nigel Faiclough for this morning's photos. See link for more of his landscape and wildlife photography.

Below is a photo of Bank Hall which is also in this area. It opens during February for 'Snowdrop Sundays'. Find out more at http://www.bankhall.org.uk/html/intro.htmlI wrote this last year. Just let it resurface today. It still needs some editing but here it is so far:

SNOWDROP SUNDAYS
Bank Hall 2008

Her carriageway has known no carriage
for years. She twisted an ankle,
tripped over time, sat ageing and aching,
slates slipping from her head.
Emptiness has flaked her,
wrung its hands across the lawn,
shook out bouquets of snowdrops,
unveiling her unrequited love.

Frozen Reservoir

Upper Rivington reservoir was 95% frozen over this afternoon. It must be the lie of the land and the tilt of the sun since both Anglezarke and Lower Rivington (on either of it) remained mostly ice free. Strange too that the gulls and ducks chose to congregate on the frozen reservoir (on the thinnest ice by the unfrozen centre). Maybe they felt safest there?

Below is a poem that didn't make from the field book.

GULL ROOST, LOWER RIVINGTON
In their threes, fives and sixes, they land.
Shake. Expand the flotilla.
From time to time the whole congregation rises,
reels, reshuffles as the sun drags more small parties down
to roost.

Pushing deep into my armchair,
squeezing a Horlicks mug,
I wonder how they cope
as ice crawls from its hiding place,
encircles their legs,
traps them as they rest
with eyes under wings,
sheltered by nothing but themselves.

Ready to fly?

Regular readers will recall I took part in Robert Lee Brewer's poem-a-day challenge. Now it's time to submit.

Does each rhyme, consonance etc. connect the right words? Are the any unintended rhymes / near-rhymes that mislead? Do the rhythms flow and only jerk where intended? Have I teased meaning and associations out of the words? Will the collection hold together when it flies? (Will it fly?) And when it lands, will it bear up under scrutiny and offer something more? I hope so....

I enjoy reading other poets and observing other tutors - there's so much to learn from watching others. At the moment I'm reading Ruth Padel's 52 Ways of Looking at a Poem. (Many thanks to Crafty Green Poet who gave it to me.) A reminder to writers as well as a guide to readers. A useful resource and one I would recommend.

NOVEMBER
... and we can depend upon November
to edit out the the opulence of autumn
as she starts to define the winter clime,
strips nature back
with a long, cold stare,
slashing it
to food,
feather,
bone.

These kestrel's were taken by Mike Atkinson. Follow the link in the side bar to more photos that fly....

Misty Moorlands

One of the advantages of regular local walking is that you know the paths so can cope even in fogs and mists. Today we walked up Brinscall Moor, the higher we climbed the thinner the mist - in fact we could even see a full silver sun shining high above the mist-line.

We took the path down to Wheelton Plantation (see photos from Ewan's mobile phone) and even beneath the shelter of the pines, young oak and holly saplings were heavily sprinkled in frost. I think most of the finches were staying close to people's garden feeders.

We cut across fields and saw a beautiful Shire horse being led to its stable. In the frozen lanes blackbirds and robins flit across the path and, as we approached old Brinscall Hall, a welcome flock of redwing, fieldfare and mistle thrush fluttered through the tree tops.

Back at the frozen lodge the mallards and black-headed gulls were walking hopefully on ice, while five Muscovy ducks remained planted on the bank. My Micra's thermometer still read -2C.

Barn Owl

After a tip-off, I headed to Croston to watch a barn owl. I was rewarded by seeing it at close range: white wings quartering a field, frequently diving feet first. To me, a barn owl's wings are surprisingly long - who'd think that so much length could be so neatly stowed away?

Is it just me or do they seem very front-heavy, wedge-shaped almost? All wide face and eyes with feet tidily tucked in at the rear unless preparing to pounce. A terrifying sight if you're its prey - all eyes, beak, claws and stealth!

These photos are by David J Slater - follow the link in the side bar.

Why I went for walk....

I decided that open cap mushrooms filled with blue Stilton and wrapped in Parma ham would be a simple, yet tasty, starter for the Christmas meal. I already had the Stilton so, since the males in our house were going into town, I asked them to come back with a dozen, small, open cap mushrooms and Parma ham, adding where they could find them. Simple.

They returned with Parmesan (pardon?) and couldn't-find-any-mushrooms-excuses.... But not to worry - I went to town and returned with both only to find that while I'd been out they'd eaten all the bl**** blue Stilton!

Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for reading.

Winter Flocks

I always find winter birding exciting, not least because the birds are often moving around in huge flocks. It might be straggly skeins of pink-footed geese; loose flocks of redwings diving for cover deep in the hedgerow; fieldfare mysteriously blending into the tops of ash trees looking just like leftover keys; small groups of pipits pipping over Croston Finney; two hundred woodpigeon grouping and re-grouping; four hundred rooks resettling in the next field; hundreds of gulls massing on a reservoir; thousands of starlings swirling shapes in the sky; or great clouds of knot and dunlin moving with the tide.
I feel caught up in their exhilaration, in the excitement of wings.

Yesterday's walk around Crostom Moss and Finney rewarded me with large flocks of corvids and woodpigeon, c30 linnet, 13 pied wagtails in a ploughed field, 25 redwings, 30 pink-footed geese, 5 muddy whoopers, c20 meadow pipits, 1 buzzard, 1 sparrowhawk and other common species.

Today's photos of whoopers, rooks and greylags are by Phil Kirk - thanks.