halftwo
Wird Batcher
Rain gone with the morning sun, the last cloud brightened with a rainbow's arc: blue skies beckoned.
Out beyond the hunk of moor, where the Raven turns and Grouse burp, into a high valley's crease squeezed between the hills. A strip of birch and alder beside a brook gurgling beyond the break of the small weir meandering below the heather's ebb.
The September sun skips along the purple ridge, above autumnal trees and crams the shrubs with shattered dazzle: light leaves caught in the branches.
A Grey wagtail bounces by like a beribboned bleached lemon and dives to the steam, its call a sharp stab that spikes the calm.
In a sunny glade a Common hawker circles and lands to sun herself on a bramble and a Comma floats by: a burnt orange delight.
The thinnest filament of sound whispers from Goldcrests foraging in willows, flicking and hovering to pick at tiny prey. Chiffchaffs follow Blue tits and sing as if in Spring. A party-coloured bunch of Bullfinches fill thick bills with seeds; portly, dumpy, fabulous.
Song thrushes, hidden low in deep shadows, calling sharp warnings. Jays glide across the gaps.
Then a faint "dwee-dwee" oozes from the sallows: then silence. Listen. Again: "dwee-dwee" : Marsh tit. Across the track - a glimpse: a dark cap - gone. This apparition fades away amongst the sunlit trees, one more "dwee-dwee" , giving one more ghost-like vision.
Now Long-tailed tits crowd by, whispering and tutting, Chiffchaffs attendant on their gleanings. A Treecreeper's soft susserations seep from the dark and a silver belly shimmies up the bark, outshining the spotlit birches.
Suddenly the Long-tailed tits chorus an alarm as a Sparrowhawk's silhouette jumps the blue gap above the track and Lesser redpolls swirl in panic from catkins. Stillness solidifies and a Buzzard tilts in the clear warming air.
Out beyond the hunk of moor, where the Raven turns and Grouse burp, into a high valley's crease squeezed between the hills. A strip of birch and alder beside a brook gurgling beyond the break of the small weir meandering below the heather's ebb.
The September sun skips along the purple ridge, above autumnal trees and crams the shrubs with shattered dazzle: light leaves caught in the branches.
A Grey wagtail bounces by like a beribboned bleached lemon and dives to the steam, its call a sharp stab that spikes the calm.
In a sunny glade a Common hawker circles and lands to sun herself on a bramble and a Comma floats by: a burnt orange delight.
The thinnest filament of sound whispers from Goldcrests foraging in willows, flicking and hovering to pick at tiny prey. Chiffchaffs follow Blue tits and sing as if in Spring. A party-coloured bunch of Bullfinches fill thick bills with seeds; portly, dumpy, fabulous.
Song thrushes, hidden low in deep shadows, calling sharp warnings. Jays glide across the gaps.
Then a faint "dwee-dwee" oozes from the sallows: then silence. Listen. Again: "dwee-dwee" : Marsh tit. Across the track - a glimpse: a dark cap - gone. This apparition fades away amongst the sunlit trees, one more "dwee-dwee" , giving one more ghost-like vision.
Now Long-tailed tits crowd by, whispering and tutting, Chiffchaffs attendant on their gleanings. A Treecreeper's soft susserations seep from the dark and a silver belly shimmies up the bark, outshining the spotlit birches.
Suddenly the Long-tailed tits chorus an alarm as a Sparrowhawk's silhouette jumps the blue gap above the track and Lesser redpolls swirl in panic from catkins. Stillness solidifies and a Buzzard tilts in the clear warming air.
