Out this morning to the Lea Valley bird watching, hoping for smew and goldeneye on the reservoirs and perhaps a brambling in the woods. Managed only a single female goldeneye and a sore shoulder from the weight of my telescope but it was such a beautiful morning to be out, sunny and frosty. A crisp winters morning with the sun behind is perfect bird watching weather, every colour sharp - and no hiding mysteriously in leaves.
I love the winter birds, the skeins of geese against the sky, ducks paragliding in sliding on the ice, so many colours of ducks in the sun:wigeon and teal and shoveler, wonderful drake smews like Cistercian monks in their white costumes. I love the finch flocks in the park, siskins, goldfinches, greenfinches, chaffinches, in an out of the fallen leaves.
The weather has an anglo saxon feel - the cold, the rime frost, the empty countryside and the images of the birds. In The Wanderer the lone traveller watches the sea birds bathing and spreading their feathers amid the hoar frost and hail, they sum up his bleak loneliness. I am reminded too of the story of King Edwin of Northumbria as he gathered his nobles to consider the new faith that was being preached. Should they keep to the old pagan ways, or should they convert to Christianity? The king listens to all the arguments, the decision is in the balance. Finally one of his old warriors speaks up. A man's life, he says, is like a sparrow that flies into the feast hall on a stormy night. It comes in from the cold and dark, for a brief time it is in light and warmth, then it is gone again into the dark, no one knows where. If this new faith can offer any hope or light into the darkness, he says, let us follow it. It is enough to sway the balance and the king accepts the new faith and Northumbria is established as a Christian kingdom.
'The north wind doth blow, and we shall have snow and what will poor robin do then, poor thing? He'll hide in the barn and keep himself warm, and hide his head under his wing, poor thing.'
