Birdlife

Birdlife

Gatherings of gulls

Sweeping, swirling, swooping, screaming

And flockings and flutterings

Of the smaller feathered species

Scatterings of speckled starlings

Silhouettes in the darkening sky

The sun sinking and dying

A roosting of ravens

Eyes sheeny-black and shiny

Amid the cawing of crows

And the hooting of owls

Chirpings, shriekings and chatterings

Alarm calls in the twilight

The shift-change noises of crossing purposes

Between the night-time nesters

Who will sit in fear through the curfew

Of dark-hours till the sun rises again

And the day-time sleepers

Who welcome pale moonlight

Amid the cawing of crows

And the hooting of owls

Shapes and shadows in the darkness

Stirrings, wing-stretchings, shakings

Within the barns and trees

A ruffling and preening of feathers

Sharpened beaks and beady eyes

Of the wakening hunters and raptors

Prior to crepuscular activity

Amid the cawing of crows

And the hooting of owls

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2019