Autumn Advances

[poliphilo]

The gulls have moved on. Breeding season is over and the nests among the chimney stacks are abandoned. I put out the left-over cat food and there's no response. Once they'd have been flapping around my ears, now the dish sits out there in the garden until some passing bird- often a juvenile- happens upon it.

I'm no longer waking up to squwaks.

The leaves are still on the trees but beginning to go brown. The process is further advanced in the Midlands (as we noticed last weekend.) The palm tree in the front yard is shedding its fronds.

Ailz has a cold, the wind howls, a soft rain falls.

I want to gather my world around me- tight- and curl up like a dormouse...

Comments

[qatsi]

We've had sparrows in our chimney this year. I had hoped they were finished for the year, but in the past days I've heard the chirping around again, although it doesn't sound as though it is in the chimney this time.

[poliphilo]

Do you use the chimney?

[qatsi]

No. It probably hasn't been cleaned for at least 20 years. We think it should be done soon, because there's probably nesting remains stuck in it, but apparently sparrows can have 3-4 clutches a year. Yes, in a way it was charming to have birds nesting in it, but overall it was disruptive. Some of the young fledged downwards into the living room (finding their way around the grate) rather than up into the sky - some of those fatally as we were on holiday and unable to release them, and one fell or fledged too early, when it wasn't able to fly, and had to be taken to a rescue centre.