Robert McFarlane: The Wild Places.

“Our disenchantment of the night through artificial lighting may appear, if it is noticed at all, as a regrettable but eventually trivial side effect of contemporary life. That winter hour, though, up on the summit ridge with the stars falling plainly far above, it seemed to me that our estrangement from the dark was a great and serious loss. We are, as a species, finding it increasingly hard to imagine that we are part of something which is larger than our own capacity. We have come to accept a heresy of aloofness, a humanist belief in human difference, and we suppress wherever possible the checks and balances on us - the reminders that the world is greater than us or that we are contained within it.” 

Skirr Cottage Diary.

Have just come out of hospital after a week of being literally tied to a machine and isolated in a clinical room. Looking at Rare Bird Alert on twitter (recommended) I felt pangs of dire frustration, as at this time of year we are usually in North Norfolk and there appear to be some great birds about on the coast. Yet as I sat in relative isolation reading The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane, for some reason, just knowing that the birds were out there and many of the wild places he explores in his wonderful book are etched into my memory from past expeditions, gave me a sense of understanding and contentment. Sometimes just knowing these wonderful creatures and places are out there can bring a kind of fulfilment and delight.

Skirr Cottage Diary: Yellow Browed Warbler.

Sunday morning and a beautiful sunny day. Suddenly a fall of small birds descend into the shrubs and the bamboo. The bird table and the bird bath become a focus of attention with up to five coal tits, a pair of nuthatch, wrens, dunnocks, house sparrows, robins, black birds; great and blue tits everywhere. Then a willow warbler showed itself: but even better, the star of this impromptu show, a yellow browed warbler appeared on top of a section of bamboo. This was a first for me in Derbyshire, let alone my garden. This small green leaf warbler came so close to the bedroom window binoculars were not even needed. The bird showed well in the sunlight, not much larger than a goldcrest, sporting a fine yellowish eyebrow stripe and prominent double wing bars. Eventually the bird left the bamboo and perched on the corner of the sun house roof right beneath our viewing window. After about two minutes the little migrant joined the rest of the flock and disappeared into the leafy shrubs. It was good to note the difference between this little rarity and the willow warbler, which actually appeared to be a lot shyer, showing briefly then diving into the cover of the shrubs. The small flock of mixed birds stayed for about half and hour, then disappeared as quickly as they had arrived, leaving our local sparrows and chaffinch feed without competition.