Monday 10 August
There have been a few topics for my blog that I had been saving up for when the weather turned too stormy or wet, preventing me from venturing outside for a walk. I had no idea that I would kept inside because the weather was too hot and sunny! It has really heated up throughout most of the UK over the past few days; it’s 2pm here and a roasting 31° outside with very little breeze.
The garden is suffering with the broad-leafed shrubs wilting and the grass crispy brown across 80% of the lawn. Still, the insects are loving it. But the birds are missing, and I am missing them.
So, in their absence I have been putting together a book of feathers that I have collected over the past few months. All have been picked up on walks or passed to me from neighbours and friends. Some of these feathers have featured in previous posts.
Again, writing this blog is really enjoyable because it is leading me to explore, in way more depth, the detail of what I find around me. Before lockdown and Coronavirus, I may have been interested in picking up a feather and having a closer look – briefly. But it would almost certainly have been dropped a little further along the walk. It is unlikely that I would follow up on this back at home – a lack of time would prevent it.
Now, I will hold a couple of feathers and take time to notice how different they look and feel. Some are long and rigid, others are short and wide and soft. Some are dark, speckled, striped, spotted, plain white, or just plain. I am trying to learn the specialist language of feathers and revelling in the fact that I can spot a feather on the ground where I walk and know exactly what bird it is from. I then look around me wondering where they might have perched to pluck away.
And take time to wonder why they might have been doing this? Preening? Grooming? Or maybe they weren’t plucking at all and it is as a result of a predation? I am grateful for that gift of time during lockdown and, now that lockdown is over, I purposefully make time to keep learning about what’s around me.
The Bald Birder 