The Day Shift

Monday, 2nd September 2002, West Yorkshire

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It's a misty morning with dew on the ground. Already a sparrowhawk is on its rounds, flying across the meadow and diving down behind an ash tree into the wood.

A few minutes later a heron cruises unhurriedly down the valley following the line of the stream just above the treetops. heron

This seems to be a regular flight-path for birds spreading out into the surrounding countryside from their base, the large heronry at Bretton Lakes.

In the evening we see a line of Canada geese (only seven or eight of them, not as many as the skein in my sketch) making their way back in the direction of Bretton from the Calder valley. When I first spot them they're coming towards just above the grey horizon to the right of the distant chimney of Eggborough power station and for a moment I think they're a row of small grey clouds hanging there. They soon resolve themselves into geese.

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