10/3/2021 Kingfisher – crossing the bridge before Folly Bridge. We stopped to look at the garden made on one of the piers of the river channel-straddling house. Then the kingfisher flashed across, a contrast with the dark water & the leaves. Like light reflected from a gem. A glimpse of its orange belly. It perched in the tree that hangs down over the water, visible & invisible as my eyes picked up the colour in the frame of the twigs, then lost it again. I saw the movement, the white bib. the gleam off the bill. It dived, dropping hard into the water then showering up, higher into the branches. Did it catch anything? Perhaps. It stayed there until we walked on.
After reflecting on the language of winter, I started to look at what happened in my lockdown nature diary as spring began.
9/2/2021 Snowdrops stretching down the bank of the stream & into the water. Freezing cold
20/2/2021 Yesterday – daffodils in the park – first of 2021 Snowdrops and crocuses in the mud
27/2/2021 Purple crocuses in a spread under the trees Daffodils across the car park Lunch outside in the warm sun
2/3/2021 Muntjac prints. Roe prints, which we follow as they follow the path by the stream Muntjacs seen through the undergrowth round, brown bristly and cautious. Stops and looks before running… Hawthorn leaves cracking open the cold air Magnolia buds – for the iguanadons! Hawthorn blossom A horse chestnut has gone early, the green looking alert among all the saggy winter browns
14/3/2021 Robins visible through skeins of twigs. Starlings in a flock overhead Lime leaves just breaking through, the green wet – bright & intense Burst of song suddenly impinging on my mind…. Bluebell leaves in the wood Green swathes of moss & the grey of lichens among the undergrowth & the dull brown leaf letter Sense of the high trees
29/3/2021 Brimstones waking up from winter floating element in the air against the sun, light reflecting from tips of leaves Bee fly weird and enigmatic on the wall, fuzzy Buff-tailed bees. Listening to songs – great tit, blackbird. Sound of the magpie all polished up raiding next door’s birdseed…. Violets and forget me nots outside…. & still there are full trees of blossoms, daffodils in the copses & under the tree on Abingdon Road in full flower. The tree in bloom a perfect image of cherry blossom Magnolia The ants outside The smell of mint Cut grass Things I am not noticing
Open Field 