Autumn, the ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ – a line from a beautiful poem* by John Keats, it is well worth a read. Many poets are moved by Nature to compose poetry; this is particularly true of Autumn I think.
A walk in the wilds at this time of year can be very rewarding; look out for birds of prey, the young of this year are all on the move exploring and hungry! I watched a Sparrowhawk chasing starlings over the croft yesterday; there must have been about 300 starlings, I didn’t see the hawk catch one.
A buzzard was sitting on a telephone pole also watching, it was probably more interested in the mice and voles or perhaps a juicy fat rabbit.
A walk in the wilds at this time of year can be very rewarding; look out for birds of prey, the young of this year are all on the move exploring and hungry! I watched a Sparrowhawk chasing starlings over the croft yesterday; there must have been about 300 starlings, I didn’t see the hawk catch one.
A buzzard was sitting on a telephone pole also watching, it was probably more interested in the mice and voles or perhaps a juicy fat rabbit.
Many birds and animals are on the move now, our swallows stayed late this year but left for sunny Africa this weekend. Geese should be arriving in Scotland from the colder north very soon too; our very special Greenland Barnacle geese usually reach Durness [from Greenland] in a few weeks. They are beautiful small black and white geese, about a thousand of them move onto the grassy fields at Balnakeil and also over to Eilean Hoan, the island out from Ceannabienne beach, keep your eyes wide open.
This Wednesday [September 23rd] is a special day for the Earth [and all us creatures on it] as the hours of night and day are equal then, twelve hours each – or almost, there is still a few minutes difference. One word describes this occurrence, which happens twice a year, once in Spring and again in Autumn, do you know what the word is?
Poem * ‘Ode to Autumn’ by John Keats, written almost 200 years ago.
Poem * ‘Ode to Autumn’ by John Keats, written almost 200 years ago.