Tuesday 2nd August (Autumn: A Time of  Maturity or Incipient Decay)


Mr. Kite looked out of his bedroom window into a grey sky. Now Mr. Kite is coming to believe that autumn has started. The newspapers, the school holidays and the modern calender may suggest otherwise but with leaves falling from the trees and now brown patches of dead foliage appearing in the Lime trees Mr. Kite can only believe that this is autumn: a time of maturity or incipient decay.

Now Mr. Kite has a question: do birds migrate in winter, spring, summer and autumn? So Mr. Kite considers one species of bird; the Swift. The first Swift Mr. Kite watched this year was on 1st May in Avignon and to arrive on this day the birds must have traveled in April. At the moment Mr. Kite is watching Swifts carefully just to note when they leave. Today Mr. Kite has watched a few scream across the sky but wonders on what day will the skies be empty of them.

In the afternoon Mr. Kite cycled to Monkmoor Lagoon bird-watching. To cut a long story short the water was devoid of birds. Five Mallards sat on the waters edge, three Moorhen walked a long the edge of the island and Wood Pigeons flew over. But in the warm afternoon sun it was sufficient to have a pleasant time.

Mr. Kite then went home for a Tetley tea. Cheers.