Chiaroscuro over Kendal Race Course Hearing geese calling, I looked up to see chevrons in flight over Marks and Spencer. Late that afternoon, from my study window, I saw large flocks of small birds flying south. Redwing I thought. And the RSPB report sightings of numbers arriving in the UK.
So yesterday I headed for Scout Scar, saw little but heard a flock of starling babbling in a sheltered hollow of woodland-fringe. Today, I returned- seeking autumn migrants, winter thrush. Large flocks of starling will have flown in from Continental Europe, so they're migrants too.
So yesterday I headed for Scout Scar, saw little but heard a flock of starling babbling in a sheltered hollow of woodland-fringe. Today, I returned- seeking autumn migrants, winter thrush. Large flocks of starling will have flown in from Continental Europe, so they're migrants too.
October is unusually mild, the ground soft with recent rain and fungi fruits in a scatter over the grass of Kendal Race Course. The skies grew dark and louring with a blustery wind. Too dark for bird watching. I'd almost given up when I thought I caught the babbling of a flock of starling. Bird listening was a challenge through a loud wind on a late October day, almost Halloween. I could see nothing but I donned full waterproofs as it began to rain and headed back across the Race Course toward Scout Scar. I glimpsed a flock fly low over spears of dead thistles and into trees.
I've often found winter thrush, fieldfare and redwing, in a mixed flock. Starling are always more vocal so I listen attentively for the distinctive call of fieldfare. It's a chiaroscuro morning, with dark clouds gathering and sudden showers, then floodlight in the distance.
I've often found winter thrush, fieldfare and redwing, in a mixed flock. Starling are always more vocal so I listen attentively for the distinctive call of fieldfare. It's a chiaroscuro morning, with dark clouds gathering and sudden showers, then floodlight in the distance.
Should I stay or should I go? Dark clouds take out the light and raindrops blob my camera lens. Then the sun breaks free of cloud flooding the Race Course with light and to the north a rainbow appears. So I follow the babble of starling until I find them silhouetted like the last autumn leaves in the tree-tops.
Sometimes one has to be content with not knowing, with the unresolved. And winter thrush should be earned with patient observation. It shouldn't be too easy. It's possible I heard the call of fieldfare through the wind. I can't be sure. All day there was darkness and bursts of sunlight, and rainbows.
Photography means drawing with the light, light as revelation. On a chiaroscuro day of prevailing dark cloud and the occasional burst of sunlight the image sequence seeks the light, however fleeting.
Reading Jim Crace, The Guardian, after RIshi Sunak's first PMQs, I wish journalists could try seeking the light instead of being relentlessly negative and destructive. Chiaroscuro, let there be some light in the darkness.
Photography means drawing with the light, light as revelation. On a chiaroscuro day of prevailing dark cloud and the occasional burst of sunlight the image sequence seeks the light, however fleeting.
Reading Jim Crace, The Guardian, after RIshi Sunak's first PMQs, I wish journalists could try seeking the light instead of being relentlessly negative and destructive. Chiaroscuro, let there be some light in the darkness.
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