Salford, 25th January 2017
in response to the daily prompt
Ten
i never realised my home city was such a magnet for birds, particularly waterfowl
pigeons are normally the first thing I’d spot,
sparrows usually nest in the small fir trees 🌲 In the front garden
today a blackbird said hello, hopping about from tree to tree with his distinctive yellow beak. He pecked around the hardened lawn looking for the odd worm 🐛 or caterpillar 🐛 for breakfast,
and at Christmas we were visited by a robin redbreast who hopped in and out of the house 🏡 on the look out for food 🥘
he enjoyed nibbling on the bits of bird seed cake 🎂 left on the windowsill
a family of song thrushes is now occupying the fir tree in the front garden, and I can’t wait for early spring to arrive, as new life hatches in front of its mum and dad high up in the trees 🌲
The colour soon returns in the spring as blue birds and canaries descend on the lawns , grasses and gardens in my hometown. It’s an ideal time for the birds 🐦 and is great for the flowers 🌺 as they get pollinated as the feathered friends go for the prize of their nectar.
living by a river and a ship 🚢 canal, I see plenty of seabirds around the water, Canada geese are most in abundance, and can be seen on the basin in packs going for the spoils left for the rest of the wildfowl. Tourists sandwiches can now be denoted as endangered due the curiousity of these brown feathered greedy guts! But I humour them all the same…as being chased by an irate mother goose is not what I call fun
alongside the geese are a family of swans. They have grown in number since I first saw them by the quayside. They’re relatively quiet, but this doesn’t stop the adolescent ones having sibling rivalry on the centenary pathway…common cause of the fights…scraps (by that I mean the bits of food 🥘 left by those sat by the waterside)
finally there are two different sea 🌊 birds 🐦 I see parked on the orange coloured buoys by the basin lock booms. The first, a heron is practically the veteran of the entire group, as he took up residence just after the waters were cleaned up, and he’s been living on the dock since then. It’s fun seeing him dive for sprats in the basin. The newest arrival, a black cormorant landed around the lock gates last summer…and he hasn’t left…I get the sense he likes the waters round my neck of the woods.
