wintering in warm Britain …
By Rhiannonw
- 1574 reads
Turnstones
Warmer here than the Arctic,
white-tummied furry bundles
with sturdy, short orange legs,
fluttering, fossicking
on our rich tidal shores,
stubby, steely beaks
poke and turn
the stones and seaweed,
searching out their food.
But where the shoreline’s
fully flooded twice a day –
where now awhile?
intermingle with the pavement scavengers
for titbits here and there?
and when the tide retreats …
back to the beach.
photograph my husband’s. There is a cricket on the stones, a reminder of all that’s lurking under pebbles! There was a film on Winterwatch on BBC about the Turnstones in St Ives entering the town and mingling with the pavement pigeons when the tide is high. We don’t have a photo of Turnstones – you can look them up!
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Comments
How interesting! I've just
How interesting! I've just googled - thank you Rhiannon.
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Hi Rhiannon,
Hi Rhiannon,
I can see the little creature on the stones in the picture. It's so interesting that there's another world that we tend to forget about because it's so hard to see, so it was great to read your poem.
Jenny.
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seen something like these
seen something like these here (googled like Insert!) but only on the beach not in town, so maybe plovers not turnstones. The video I saw they look so bustly and have such gentle eyes don't they? Well done your husband getting a picture, if I ever got close enough to insects for a picture they bounce/fly/scurry off in a macro blurr :0)
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