In Ávila
the church towers all wear
Tam o’ Shanter storks nests
Actually, it’s not just the churches; any tall roof may sport a heap of sticks at a rakish angle like a French beret or a Scottish tam.
Except, of course, when the whole building roof or dome appears to be the bonnet and the nest is just the toorie – the bobble on the top.
Continue reading “bonnets and bobbles, Tam o’ Shanters and tassels”
As is probably apparent from other posts on the blog, I tend to notice birds. I don’t actually like them very much, but I notice them and they crop up in my writing all the time.
This week I had to go to Ávila, a city that boasts more storks than any other place I’ve ever visited. Every church tower has a nest or two, and everywhere you go the great pterodactyl-like silhouettes wheel slowly overhead.
Here in the village we seldom get cigüeñas, although we have a pair of garzas that are nesting somewhere along the river. I find it odd how easy it is to tell a heron in flight from a stork. There’s the distinctive curve of the neck and something about the heron’s feet that always makes me think of ballet shoes.
Yesterday, though, my attention was caught by storks and a crane silhouetted against the sky. (The pun works rather better in English than in Spanish, where the construction crane is grúa and the bird is grulla.)
A fragment of an old poem to start off with:
Under the apple treee, a prattle
of tabby-feathered sparrows anticipates
the flick and snap of chequered tablecloth
that signals their breadcrumb breakfast.
I was reminded of the image because I had a newspaper clipping sent to me the other day – yes, there are still people who read printed newspapers, albethey freebies, and who cut out things other than coupons to send on accompanied by real letters to specific people, rather than glancing superficially at on-line phrases and sending irrelevant links to everyone in their email address book. It was a cutting about the Spanish sparrow who is causing a furore in a coastal village in Hampsire.
Continue reading “a flock of bird thoughts”
I’ve seen it all – though sadly I don’t have photos, so have had to link to other sites: I’ve finally seen all the animals and birds that appear on the information board along by the river in the village. There aren’t that many, but it’s taken me six years to get a full house:
Continue reading “now I’ve seen it all”
2:00 am
Crickets creak a tripwire grid
across the garden.4:00 am
The hoot of an owl glides like a shadow
from the heart of the tallest pine.5:30 am
The rooster’s crowing wakens the hens
who peck and pick, unravelling
the fraying edges of the night.6:00 am
Now, all the valley dogs are worrying
at the straggling ends of dark; they tug
and bark and run with them towards the morning.
(A draft – or perhaps just notes for a poem – which is very much a variation on a theme. I posted an earlier interpretation almost exactly two years ago as Alarm)
Incidentally, trying to find out what type of owl I was writing about, I found the Owl Pages site with its extensive selection of recordings. And having cross-referenced with the Iberia Nature site, I think I must be thinking of a tawny owl.
don't confuse the narrator 