May marvels
I've just put the Richard Jefferies piece on the front page, and particularly liked: "From the tiny mottled egg come the wings that by-and-by shall pass the immense sea."
This reminded me that in the first week in May - 4 May to be precise - I started to write the following post, but then got distracted, had to save it as a draft, and never finished it. In an effort to convey the excitement of the moment, I'm including the original post here, even though it is several weeks on.
It is always fantastic when the swifts arrive, from their long journey across the "immense sea".
(4 May 2006)
The swifts are here! The swifts are here!
They arrived yesterday morning. As is often the case, I heard them before I saw them. There are a lot of birds in the garden being rather vocal at this time of year, and yet the call I heard wasn't one of the familiar ones. I then dashed to the window to see if I could see them. There were just a few to begin with, high up.
They've come such a long way to be here, and yet they still fly so swiftly (hence the name, I guess) around the rooftops, with that amazing call. For anyone who hasn't encountered the swifts, and is interested, there's a website where you can see a clip of them flying or listen to their call - London Swifts also has information on how to help them to flourish.
- - - - -
The other thing I meant to mention on 4 May was that I found this link on an excellent website I'd just discovered - Gardens for Wildlife - www.foxleas.com/ - which includes some really nice photos. Including one of a shield bug - I found one of these in my garden once - a striking-looking beastie - and took a photo, but my photo was rubbish. Here's a really good photo instead: Shield bug photo - foxleas.com. There are also some very handsome garden views in the site's Garden Gallery.
posted - Wednesday, May 31, 2006
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