online: 14 february 2007
modified: 14, 15 february 2007

14 february 2007 signs of spring, 2007


15:20 panorama path (below Parliament Hill)... a sunny afternoon after rain... the ground is saturated... temporary streams flow across the grassy hillside... pond 3 is 6 inches (15 cm) higher than usual... and water is flowing fast through the overflow... it's not obstructed...

about 30 crows have congregated on the wet ground and on the branches of a nearby oak... what brings them?... they don't seem to be eating anything...

the city is brightly lit in the afternoon sun, the mist has moved south towards the downs (the hills between London and coast)... and the air is beginning to feel spring-like... yesterday i passed an elder tree (in a protected spot near here) and it was already beginning to sprout leaves...

now all but 2 of the crows have descended from the tree - they seem to be attracted by a temporary stream and swamp and to be pecking for worms in the mud - or are they seeking something else?... soon they were crowding together on the asphalt path - on which i saw no worms, or anything else eatable, after they had flown away...

as i return home i see that the sun is well above the horizon at 4 pm... the days are beginning to lengthen... these seasonal changes, predictable as they are, never fail to inspire... is there more to the seasons than biology and physics and astronomy imply?... (and are these old questions returning?)





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