BirdForum

It's mostly been a summer of cricket for me (watching, not playing!) and have not been birding much of late recently. I have been out on the occasional day but nothing really serious (although I did twitch a Hoopoe at Climping a couple of weekends ago).

All that changed this weekend though, and my, what a fantastic weekend it was too!

Up early Saturday morning and catching the train to Pulborough. Cue sitting in Nettley's hide for two hours to shelter from the rain...

Stoggler

Long before the first people to Duhallow came
And called one old mountain there Clara by name
And built a Village they called Millstreet that grew to a Town
A place that has been feted in sporting renown.

Old Clara the mountain now known far and wide
Had for an unknown amount of centuries been overlooking the green countryside
The countryside known as Duhallow today
How old is old Clara can anyone say?

Old Clara that often inspired...

Francis Duggan

The sun intermittently shines through clouds of blue and gray
On this the first of September today is Wattle Day
And on the first of the Australian Calendar Spring
The nesting birds in the town parkland sing.

The wattles laden in their yellow flowers
Have bloomed through Winter's cool wind driven showers
Pink and or white blossoms blooming on every fruit bearing tree
And the wattles in bloom a lovely sight to see.

The day is...

Francis Duggan

The dinosaurs the ways of time since have long gone
They belonged to Nature and Nature lives on
The same Nature who provides for the family of man
The one true immortal on her no time span
Of Nature's ways little we do seem to know
Yet our wonder of her only does seem to grow
The one with the unrivalled creative powers
She creates the trees and the grass and the flowers
Her unrivalled beauty we see every day
And to view it money we do...

Francis Duggan

A male and female black swan and their four gray cygnets I see them swimming on the lake today
A thing of beauty that I will remember since such beauty from the memory never fade away
They looked so fluffy no more than a week old quite safe from danger with mum and dad quite near
The sun between the showers shone for a brief spell typical for late August in late Winter of the year
The first young swans I have seen of this their breeding season the species survival on...

Francis Duggan