This article is a continuation of part 10, which can be found here.
13th July continued…
Dunnock.
I must start the business of the day but I do not want to.
Willow Tit (? I doubt but hope!), Song Thrush. 7.18 a.m.
19.08 p.m. Back. Cool at last, very breezy.
Bank Swallow (I don’t think this is the correct S/S/M (Swallow/Swift/Martin)), Common Wood Pigeon.
Nine or ten S/S/M flying overhead, very vocal – displays? Pairs swooping at one another – mating? Territory? Large brown bird on distant field’s edge – buzzard? Curlew? Need to get some binoculars at some point.
Eurasian Blackbird, Carrion Crow. Specks of rain. Eurasian Linnet, European Goldfinch. Gulls flying overhead. Eurasian Magpie. S/S/M still overhead – must be feeding. Western House Martin – yes, this seems more correct. Eurasian Jackdaw. 19.30 p.m.
14th July, 4.11 a.m.
On the decking of my friend’s cabin, a few metres from our own, maybe ——, down the steps into the Alders Wood. In the middle of The Seven. Beautiful, bubbling sound of the river. Birds much louder (than in my own front garden).
Song Thrush, Eurasian Wren, European Robin, Eurasian Blackbird, Common Chaffinch, Mallard very audible from here, Robin more distinctive.
Ash, Sycamore, Hawthorn (crossed out), Blackthorn (?), Scots Pine all so close around me, riddles of branches framed against the grey dawn sky, their greens muted by half-light. Here, I feel deeper into the magic. The sound of the river is so bewitching. Here, the birds fly much closer around and above you – Blackbirds scolding and chittering in the Blackthorn three metres away – some flying past my head so close they disturb my hair. Stillness and silence is everything. Unmoving has such exquisite rewards.
Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Spotted Flycatcher, Eurasian Blackcap, Common Chiffchaff by 4.37a.m.
I keep wondering what has happened to the Tawny Owl population – this year is the quietest they have ever been. 4.40 a.m., watched a nimble grey squirrel pass from the Blackthorn, across to one Sycamore, then across to another Sycamore. Such an immersive, raw experience – I am a little nervous and overwhelmed, birds very loud, I feel as if I am about to be discovered.
4.49 a.m. back in my own front (garden). Carrion Crow. 4.53 a.m.
20.16 p.m. Back. Chilly, damp.
A group of exquisite Long-tailed Tits flew over – such an incredible sight – they are whistling in the Conifer (apologies for not yet knowing the proper name of this tree) next door – I saw their long tails so distinctly. What a marvel! Large flock of Black-headed Gulls flying east, Ring-necked Pheasant, male, leaping up out of the wildflowers – his usual decoy technique, Eurasian Magpie. One sentinel Long-tailed Tit Balancing on the highest bare twig, squirming to keep balance. Common Wood Pigeon, Eurasian Collared Dove…
…Western House Martin – lone and flying overhead 20.22 p.m., European Goldfinch.
I was just thinking how wonderful a coincidence it is that I have written a poem about LT Tits (Long-tailed Tits) and then we have a wonderful show of them this evening. I shall believe it is nature’s seal of approval. Rain clouds loom – how glad I have been to have a cooler day. Still suffering from extreme dizziness but ploughed through work today. Where has my energy gone? Eurasian Wren – a Wren never complains of fatigue. Perhaps I should be more Wren (why did I write this? How can I possibly know Wrens never complain of fatigue? They might well complain to one another. They might feel fatigue and keep it to themselves).
Eurasian Linnet, Barn Swallow, Common Buzzard keening, flying south toward the wood on the other side of the railway bank. Its cry is still carrying back – calling all of the lost souls to its feet.
Yellowhammer, Lesser ? Gull flew over, on its own, 20.42 p.m. Nestlings still cheeping behind me, parent’s wings still whirring. Rosebay Willowherb growing so high, purple profusion. Nettles a good four feet high.
20.45 p.m., Eurasian Skylark bursts suddenly into song. I watch its high speck, singing as though its life depended on it, singing as if it must fill the hungry grey mouth of the sky with its sweet milk.
A dandelion seed drifted towards me, touched the grass, changed its mind and drifted away northwards, over the field. I don’t blame it – Northwards is where the heart always wants to go. Skylark sang for six minutes. The wind is deepening, beginning to gust the leaves. How I love the tall, yellow headed, waving grass.
20.56 p.m., a lone dandelion seed this time floating south – the same one? Choosing its resting place carefully – it has one chance to settle and root. The Eurasian Oystercatchers flying overhead. 20.58 p.m.
16th July, 18.27 p.m. Back. Welcome breeze, mild, blue sky – no rain. Been a boiling hot day.
Eurasian Wren, Cetti’s Warbler (I don’t think so – only spotted in south UK but you never know), Eurasian Jackdaw, Wren next to us really buzzing and chirring – chicks behind cheeping – alarm? Trying to tempt the chicks out? Carrion Crow, Rook, Eurasian Coot, European Goldfinch, Barn Swallow, Dunlin (not possible, US bird). Numerous dandelion clocks lifted by the breeze. I am trying to decompress after the huge undertaking of travelling to Cullercoats (set off at 8 a.m., returned 6 p.m.). Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Great Tit, Eurasian Magpie, Eurasian Oystercatcher, Ring-necked Pheasant, Common Wood Pigeon.
Began a painting of a pink lily.
17th July, 8.54 a.m. Back. Cloudless, already boiling hot.
Late to birding today. Exhausted. Still up early, but plodding slowly through tasks. Also went to look at the Hollyhocks growing above the neighbour’s fence. Feet in agony.
Eurasian Skylark, Common Wood Pigeon, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, European Starling, Eurasian Wren, Goldcrest, Eurasian Linnet.
The sunlight is beautiful on my feet. Dunnock, House Sparrow. It is fortunate I photographed my lilies when I did – by this morning, something had munched through all the flowers. What, I do not know. I am trying not to begrudge (I did some research afterwards and it might well have been a Red Lily Beetle and/or its larvae – I had recently purchased this plant after admiring the many lilies that grow around here. Now I am worried that the plant already had these insects on it, and I have now brought them here. Such things do happen. Perhaps the beetles were already here).
Eurasian Blue Tit, European Goldfinch. Nestlings still cheeping. Sedge Warbler. Many white butterflies – one of these days I will get round to identifying them – one thing at a time – (either Large or Small Whites or a mixture of both – when I was a child, we called them Cabbage Whites and still do, to be honest) I am trying my best not to turn this time into pressure, into self…
…criticism at my lack of knowledge. I have noticed that the more you learn, examine and identify, the more you are shown what you do not know. Such is the infinity of nature.
Great Tit, Western House Martin. Oh! At last! A return of the Geese! 8.19 a.m., a V of about ten flew over heading (north east). Greylag Geese. Many times, over the years I have watched for them and they have crept into my poetry. What would Emily Dickinson have made of this momentary sight? I pen my own poor echo, try to catch the esoteric wonder of her work and match it to the blissful sighting of the geese. I fail, but I try.
Greylag—oh! —Vision
of Voices—V, V, V—writing
your singular aim across
the cloudless Blue—
Your Version of Song has its own
plain beauty—and gone,
as sure as Ghosts—dismiss
these acres with each strong sweep
of your Wings—not Here, not Here—
but Somewhere Else where I
can never be—Greylag, —oh! —
if You would only take
the morsel of my heart
and land it, nest it, squabble
it mired with Your own
leather and broad-leaf feet!
Eurasian Blackbird, Common Chaffinch, Carrion Crow.
Skin and soul, I am warmed. 8.30 a.m.
12.26 p.m. An ecstasy – one Goldfinch singing its heart out in next door’s Silver Birch. I am altering the way I am reacting to this diary – I began with just the lists – now I am beginning to document connections between birds and self. Is this the right or wrong thing to do? Will I lose the purity of the plain, undecorated lists? Am I doing the birds and my nature knowledge a disservice by allowing my humanness to intrude? Am I just yet another selfish human naming and claiming? Using nature as a backdrop for my own life? Is nature nothing more to us than a gallery wall on which we hang the portraits of our lives?
Today is not going so well – I am paying heavily for pulling my shopping trolley around with my left hand – I had to carry my requirements for the day’s workshop in Cullercoats. My right hand holds the walking stick. The pain screaming from the Glenohumeral Joint area is beyond astonishing. It passes down the humerus. The Glenohumeral Ligaments are agonising, as is the Transverse Humeral Ligament. The pain was so bad I had to shutdown and try to sleep.
1.10 p.m. Why must everything I do come at such a hight cost? No matter how much I ask for help with the shopping, help is refused. Where is my art today? I have top-and-tailed hundreds of gooseberries.
18.49 p.m. Back. Humid, a little overcast, feels like rain.
I do sit at the back more often to do my birding. Less chance of being seen. Not much peace this evening – neighbour clattering about, the sound of a football match from over the river. I miss my son so much. I cannot hear the chicks behind me. Have they gone? Now we have empty nesting in common.
Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Eurasian Linnet, Common Wood Pigeon, Western House Martin.
My temper has been very out of sorts today. I am snappy as a terrier. The golden flash of European Goldfinch flashing by. Goldcrest. I feel as if today has been one of the last days. Multitudes…
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