  
Rain BirdsSunday 2nd April 2000
  
THE RAIN hardly lets up all day. No wonder the hedges are looking greener. Wood Pigeons sit about in the tops of the Ash trees in the wood. In this light, their plumage is as grey as the weather. 
A Goldfinch sings from a television aerial. Its clear, twittering song adds a bright note to the afternoon, but, in silhouette against the bright sky, even the goldfinch can't add much in the way of colour (my sketch was drawn on a brighter day).
There's a raucous shriek; a Jay flies into trees at the corner of the street. Even today's greyness can't entirely dull the flash of its wing and tail patches. It makes its way from tree to tree towards the wood.
|
'White-tail' our resident Blackbird has made it through the winter. Last year he raised a brood in the hedge and, after that, probably, another brood in a nest nearer to the wood. He perches in the rain on the pruned back bough of next door's weeping willow and sings a couple of phrases.