The Nature of Flight
Being fully awake and with the soft magic of the half-light dissolved like mist, I stare in slack mouthed silence as squirrels hurriedly ripple across my path, their spines undulating like waves along a skipping rope. They have become startled by the rooks alighting in the great oak tree. Rooks have a more discerning scent and lead a flock of starlings to an area rich in food. They have a more delicate feel in their beaks enabling them to detect food from a greater distance so have formed a beneficial relationship with the starlings, the rooks also acting as a ‘look out’ for predators on open ground which can be readily observed.
As twilight descends large groups of starlings will gather together to form a ‘murmur’ as they take to the air sky writing, forming intricate patterns as they climb, switch and swoop in balletic flight through the air screeching loudly in their thousands before raining down to roost in woodlands, on bridges, piers, canals and even in town centres, then silence returns.
I watch in wonder the sunward flight of a skylark as he rises and falls perpendicularly. He sings aloft letting his little world know that he claims his ground below where he has a dam (female) and hopefully youngsters in a nest with her broodlings peeping from beneath her breast.
I watch eagerly our summer visitors the swallows sweeping over the surface of the fields and ponds with rapid turns and quick elevations. Swifts however, scythe through the air, they dash around in circles and when tired climb high up into the thermals taking a nap as they slowly descend. Their distant relatives the little martins move so delicately their flight is one like the butterfly.
I have often observed racing pigeons when liberated from their baskets. Suddenly there’s a great upward surge of birds wheeling and turning in the upper air and with one accord every head is turned towards home. Just another example of how much of life is a mystery as their navigation is so accurate.
As summer gently flows into autumn an awe inspiring sight is when a skein of geese are flying in formation behind the lone lead bird, always in a ‘V’ formation like an arrow head. As each bird flaps its wings the uplift created assists the ones close behind thus enabling them to fly much further. If however one should break away from its position it quickly realises the difficulties in flying alone and quickly re-joins the others. When the leader becomes tired it then drops back and another will take the lead. This behaviour continues throughout their long journey so that each lead bird rests in turn. The ones at the rear will honk to encourage the others to maintain speed.
As autumn turns to winter the flight of a flock of linnets is undulating whilst twittering as they fly sometimes joined by twites also known as mountain linnets and being smaller but similar in appearance. A charm of goldfinches with their kaleidoscope of many colours and their liquid twittering song is so delightful as they alight on the thistle heads to strip the floss and devour the soft seed inside, they are also fondly known as ‘thistle tweakers’.
The way that birds make use of nature’s signposts in the world around them is unperceived by humans, but also the smells in the air being so diluted that we are totally unaware and don’t even realise their existence.
If we pause to think a while and look around, we will then begin to realise that anything we once thought small would dilate with the grandeur of life. For you can really become swept away with it all. This then highlights our own ignorance humbling us in the presence of its all wise creator. This wonderful place bore me, drew me in and held me. It’s there for everyone.
It’s yours if you want it.
