Talsarnau, Gwynedd: That puzzling sound was a willow warbler, trapped on a prong of barbed wireOn a mild, grey evening I stepped down on to the platform at Talsarnau station in a light, blessing rain that pearled the leaves and beaded the grass. A blackthorn tree in the corner of a field was already clustered with purple sloes, misted by the drizzle. A track between taut fences of barbed wire led me through reclaimed land toward the sea wall.The pastures on either side, which teemed with estuarine birdlife in the winter months, were deserted. With my glass, I scanned sentinel oak and ash trees that stand where once all was sand. In a lone Scots pine two carrion crows chuckled to each other. I searched the alder and willow carrs, and the beds of phragmites that flourish in the shelter of the sea wall and line the long, straight, drainage dykes. I looked for the dark head and close-set ears of swimming mink, which flourish here, hunting rabbits, taking young birds. But I saw none this time. Continue reading...
Country diary: what hope for this everlasting bird?
11. srpna 2018 7:00
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Zdroj: The Guardian