Chasing Tails

Thursday, 25th January 2001, West Yorkshire

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ON DEADMAN'S LANE two rival Dunnocks sing from bushes alongside the track. It's a bright trilling song, to my ears a little like a musical version of a softly ringing telephone.

There's an amazing chasing display flight by two Long-tailed Tits through the bare branches of a Hawthorn. It's as if the bush isn't there, they dip and dive through its intricate structure, swirling with the sureness of a bat in flight. One follows the other at little more than a bird's length.

There's a smell of Fox at a junction of paths halfway up the lane. A smell which reminds me of the zoo.

In the park two male Blackbirds are fighting over what looks like the perfect nest site; luxuriant tresses of Ivy which overhang a stone embankment wall. They attempt to jump on top of each other and when one hops behind the ivy the other follows it in.

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@willowisland.co.uk'

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