Marsh Harrier
Gold wings in late sun
Struck from Thor’s hammer, bright streak
Of talons and beak
Starling Murmuration
Front row gathering
We wait for the performance
A winter ballet
Sky whale! Sky whale! Swan!
Starlings flow shapes across sky
Nature’s movie show
Find more of my birdwatching haiku here:
I am delighted to release this new omnibus of my lyric poems, pulled from fifty years of poetry writing, on subjects ranging from dreams and mediations to walks through local landscapes, art and nature.
‘Instead, I am reflected as I am in the silver puddles
Imperfectly reduced to wiggly lines and shifting shapes
Drenched full of light and singing with wild birdsong’
(poem excerpt from Freedom 2017)
Now available as a Kindle Edition eBook on Amazon here.
This morning the starling flock flew out at dawn in minus six degrees centigrade, as they flew overhead, due to the thousands of birds passing, I was able to notice a pattern within the larger grid of the flock.
Starling DRS haiku:
(You can find more of my birdwatching haiku in print and as a eBook on Amazon here.)
October sees the return of the huge flocks of starlings to Somerset and I am very lucky to be able to watch these extraordinary little birds locally. They are an endless source of entertainment and inspiration and they definitely brighten up those grey winter days with their rowdy antics.
I’ve posted before about my bird haiku book, available here, and during the year I keep writing about the birds I spot, an ongoing project for me. For the last few weeks the starlings have been gathering on the lines in our road, reminding me of that Hitchcock movie classic ‘The Birds’, very appropriate for this week!
Wishing you a Happy Diwali, Halloween, Samhain and Allhallowstide at this turning point of the year.
Starlings
This morning’s laundry
Already flapping in breeze
Starlings on a line
In the grey rain-light
A steady drizzle of wings
Storm clouds of starlings
Subscribe to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.
