Birds

Aren’t birds cool? If I were a bird, I’d like to be a goldcrest like this one because it has to eat continuously in winter to survive. Sounds like a plan. It also has a very cute outfit and a lovely song. The RSPB site is a great resource if you want to find out about birds – as I discovered today when I wanted to do some research for a poem I was drafting that included a merlin and a lapwing.

The poem is the second in a series I’m playing with about a serial killer, and because I’ve been feeling a teeny weeny bit homesick for Yorkshire this week (added to by watching Wuthering Heights the other day and somewhat influenced by having mentioned Rob Mackenzie’s poem, ‘Sketching the Moors’ recently), I decided to set it there. I settled on a first draft after fidgeting for a couple of days but I’ve already started messing with it – writing a poem seems to have quite a bit in common with birds sitting on a clutch of eggs, only the poem takes significantly longer. Having said that, I wonder which kind of bird holds the record for the longest time taken to hatch out its young?