Working lunch

Wild West Yorkshire Nature Diary,
Tuesday 28th September 1999

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AFTER A MORNING SHOWER the sky clears at lunch time and the sun has summer warmth in it. We make the most of the opportunity and take our lunch out on the patio. Today we've got what very few restaurants can boast. A Sparrowhawk swoops into the garden, puts next door's fantail pigeons to flight, then soars to roof height, right over our heads, before circling twice against the blue sky.

It's one of the perks of being a freelance wildlife illustrator, I'm not confined to the works' canteen.

willows oak leaves Twigs with rosettes of yellowed oakleaves have been blown from the trees in the wood. On the canal bank, the willows that had, until now, formed an impenatrable green screen are see-through and peppered with yellow leaves which will be the next to go.

As we noticed in the fields near the motorway yesterday, our resident birds are becoming more conspicuous as they assemble in flocks. In the hawthorns and birches near the canal, and in the nearby hedges, we see Chaffinches and Great Tits. The Mistle Thrushes have been around, in the fields and perching on the power lines, for the last few weeks.

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

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