One of the joys of living so close to open farm land is that at any time of the year that Skylarks sing we can hear them from the garden. However we don't normally see then unless they are flying over. Today, I had a drive, my quarantine is over and I can drive. The wind was so strong that I could find none of the butterflies I was looking for and any flowers I found were dancing much too much in the wind to take and photos. As I was passing through the stubble fields along Pond Lane I watched two Skylarks fly in and land near the road.
I manoeuvred my portable hide to a suitable position and scanned through the field. Luckily the road has almost no traffic and my car caused no hold ups. The nearest Lark lifted it's head and my auto-focus demonstrated how difficult it can be to focus on a small brown bird in a brown field.
I'm not sure if it could hear the shutter noise or whether there genuinely was a nearby threat, but the bird kept squatting down in the corn stems as if it was hiding. As I drove off I couldn't help the old song running through my head:Alouette je te plumerai,
roughly translated- Lark, lovely lark,
Lark I'm going to pluck you............................
I wont go on, a children's song about plucking a lark, well you could still buy Thrush Pate a few years ago in Provence (you might still be able to) so I shouldn't be surprised.
3 comments:
I can remember my sisters singing that song when they learnt French. Until now I didn't know it had anything to do with birds!
How's the knee?
Hi Murray, not sure about Tassy french? Knee is coming along, can manage waling on the flat for a mile or so, not good at climbing or running yet, but allowed to drive again which is useful.
Nice tale Tony and great photos. I'm sure there used to be a French military helicopter called an Alouette.
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