Not so close encounters

For the last two Fridays, Deb has been to a scrapbooking class in Harrogate. Both days, Nathan's been at nursery and I've looked after Mia after dropping Deb off. We've had lots of errands to do, so no time to really get back to nature but don't you think it's the glimpses of the natural world that you see as you go about our unnatural world that make your day and keep you going? Well, my encounters yesterday did for me.

Unusually, last week I drove through Wharfdale five times in one day without seeing a red kite - unusual considering that this is a site where they have reintroduced. Normal service was resumed yesterday, with a handful seen at various times, lazily wheeling over the stunning Wharfedale countryside (top sketch). There were a couple of skeins of geese flying down the valley, probably Canada or greylag geese but too distant too be sure. Thinking about geese, in the evening I sketched a goose, in sanguine pencil, from a photo on a magazine cover (bottom sketch - no, really).

Corvids and rosebay willowherb were the other things to catch the eye, together at that. A golden yellow field of corn or wheat stubble was being picked over by somewhere near four to five hundred inky black rooks and crows, pecking, squabbling, some riding the wind over the field. I'm convinced that corvids just like to play in the wind, having watched them swoop and tumble for no apparent reason, every time a wind gets up. Anyway, I digress - the field was edged with a cerise bank of fireweed, a name that conveys so much more than 'rosebay willowherb'. It was just a shame I didn't have the time to stop long enough to make a sketch.