“Suddenly he was flying, starlings around him, rising from the field and mounting over the river. His wings flickered high, with a lithe and vigorous slash, looking supple and many-jointed. Darting and shrugging, he shook starlings from his shoulders, like a dog shaking spray from his body.”
— J. A. Baker, *The Peregrine*
#JABaker #ThePeregrine #Peregrines #Birds #NatureWriting #Essex #England #Hawks
“The field was silent, misty, furtive with movement. A cold wind layered the sky with cloud. Sparrows pattered into dry-leaved hedges, rustling through the leaves like rain. Blackbirds scolded. Jackdaws and crows peered down from trees. I knew the peregrine was in this field, but I could not find him.“
— J. A. Baker, *The Peregrine*
#JABaker #ThePeregrine #Peregrines #Birds #NatureWriting #Essex #England #Hawks
More breathtaking #NatureWriting from #JABaker in #ThePeregrine —
“Screaming gulls corkscrewing high under cloud. Islands blazing with birds. A peregrine rising and falling. Godwits ricocheting across water, tumbling, towering. A peregrine, following, swooping, clutching. Godwit and peregrine darting, dodging; stitching land and water with flickering shuttle. Godwit climbing, dwindling, tiny, gone: peregrine, diving, perching, panting, beaten.”
A piece of ecstatic descriptive #NatureWriting to experience over and over again—
“Bar-tailed godwits flying with curlew, with knot, with plover; seldom alone, seldom settling; snuffling eccentricities; long-nosed, loud-calling sea-rejoicers; their call a snorting, sneezing, mewing, spitting bark. Their thin upcurved bills turn, their heads turn, their shoulders and whole bodies turn, their wings waggle. They flourish their rococo flight above the surging water.”
— #JABaker #ThePeregrine #birds
Gregory Adams Fiction
St Brigid Press