Flying over the house

North Yorkshire, Wildlife

From a bird’s point of view, though not from a human’s, our local patch is a watery world. Our nearby town of Ripon has three rivers and one canal. The River Ure passes our house. Gravel extraction is a local industry, and once exhausted, these sites are made over to wetland nature reserves. Geese flock here. Autumn and spring are the times when large V-shaped formations pass noisily over the house, honking and calling. The feature photo shows just two – are they greylags? I don’t know. Herons are here – yesterday we watched as one heaved itself from the river, and, battling against the prevailing wind, launched itself towards a distant stand of trees, where it circled, circled, before finally finding its perch. Black-headed gulls follow the farmers as they plough and harvest. I was going to go on a trip to look at coastal birds too, but no – let’s stay local.

  • This is a frequent sight as I go out to hang the washing
  • A buzzard on the wing
  • A red kite – they’re less frequent here, but common just a few miles further south
  • I’m cheating: this heron’s not local, not even British. It was spotted in South Korea. None of my local herons was in flight when I got my camera out.
  • Black-headed gulls in search of an easy meal

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33 thoughts on “Flying over the house”

  3. Although you live in North Yorkshire and not in Devon, this REALLY has a huge impact on my level of feeling good…. You have plenty of water(ways) around you, you have legions of birds, you have plenty of rural nature – it’s just at the wrong end of England for me personally….. You made me a very happy woman with this post, Margaret – Thank You.

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  4. I love the description of the heron heaving itself from the river. They do exactly that, don’t they! It’s as if they reach up to unseen handholds to give themselves the initial lift. I’ve also seen them just turn into a strong wind and take off with not even the slightest of wing movements.

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  9. The buzzard image stands out wonderfully captured with the light. Listening to native birds is a real pleasure, and even in the inner city, we have a few resident tuis. Who would’ve thought hanging washing could be so enjoyable 🙂

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    1. Sad person that I am, I get quite a bit of satisfaction from listening to – and often spotting – birds as I peg out the washing.

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  12. Awesome birds in flight Margaret! Love the rural nature you call home. We call it living in the the country here :). The gulls in the field is priceless! I love watching herons take off. They have such a grace about them.

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    1. They do. And someone’s just told me about a heronry at the other side of the river that I didn’t know about. I’ll be keeping my eyes open.

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  15. A wonderful gallery of flying birds, and all familiar to me ( though not the Korean heron, of course). I’m a sad person because I enjoy hanging out washing even without the added pleasure of birds.

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  16. What a pleasure to have such flyovers. I also quite enjoy hanging out the washing – something satisfying and timeless about it and more enjoyable with birdsong accompaniment and/or flyovers.

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