Owl in the Fog (1 Viewer)

In the sun bathed valley the already cut hay lies sweet and summer smelling between the stone walls, young Starlings stride amongst the fallen stems drying in the hill of the season.

Up and up towards the tops the blinding flash from the reservoir hits the fog bank boiling on the ridge.

Golden plovers already moulting from spangled glory pipe alarms from hummocks - watching over young in the cold mist.

Then the apparition of a Short-eared owl hunting low and silent appears through the thick air and curves at a vole at its tunnel.

Plovers' crescendo as the owl dissolves back into the morning, then silence descends.

The sun begins to lift the curtain and blue begins to break - fog becoming clouds and the day warming.

Out in the vast billowing moors bog cotton like snagged down shifts on the breeze. Curlews' ripple and Meadow pipits parachute. Now the Golden plover display and sing.

A Buzzard hangs on the ridge , ragged in the wind. Miles out a Peregrine shifts its prey and turns towards the blow, gaining height before plummeting to its cliff.

Small heaths flicker and bees hum in the warmth of the day. Skylarks rise into the depths of the bright sky in unending symphonies.

Across the moss green golden moors heat begins to warp the world and echoes of Curlews burble. Swifts slice the wobbling air above the rolling wilds.

Another wonderfully painted scene. Thank you.

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Thankyou each.

Mmmm - I always feel (even more) cheerful after reading your poems.

I'm not sure if it's you that's back, or me. The few times I popped in last year I didn't notice any of your poetry of the avian kind; it seems like a long dry spell. Haven't checked in for some time though, so maybe you've been back at it for awhile. In any case, I was pleasantly surprised to find the birding bard posting. Thanks for taking me on a mini-trip to the moors.
Sue

Thanks, Stuart.

Hi, Sue.

I was away for a while, but have been posting for a few weeks now - check this forum. I'm trying to write regularly and frequently with the view to a book.
Glad you like it. How's CA.?

H

halftwo said:

Thanks, Stuart.

Hi, Sue.

I was away for a while, but have been posting for a few weeks now - check this forum. I'm trying to write regularly and frequently with the view to a book.
Glad you like it. How's CA.?

H

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Hi H,
I wish you well on your book endeavor. Hopefully, I can spend more time on BF reading what you post.
We are having a good time in Ca but I feel somewhat adrift. We finally finished the circumnavigation last March, crossing our outbound track nearly 13 years to the day when we sailed into Zihuatenejo, Mexico. We can finally say we’ve sailed around the world. We decided we didn’t want to do the ‘Baja Bash’ last season, so Peregrine is still in Mexico. The ‘Baja Bash’ is a rough, against-the-wind stretch from the tip of Baja to California. Our current thinking is that we will cruise around Mexico for a few years, living in CA during the hurricane season and Mexico for the off season; so we still have no permanency (the illusion of permanency). I wonder if we will ever have a normal, settled life again. We are going to do a road trip in July. Gene wants to see the Eastern Seaboard and the Maritime Provinces. I hope to get a few lifers along the way.
Sue, the seasick circumnavigator.