Francis Hickenbottom’s Nature Notes.
9th December 2009 2009
A few days ago, I spent the day in York, attending a meeting at the Novotel hotel. As I usually do, I arrived, by train, well before the start of the meeting so that I had time to stroll to the venue. The Sun was very low in the sky and its rays were lighting up a number of buildings with yellow or orange light. At Micklegate Bar, the light was giving a warm glow to the two towers.
As soon as I left the railway station and started negotiating the traffic and the
people, I heard the sounds of long-
I took a walk alongside the river, where the signs of recent flooding were plain to see. In fact some buildings close to the water were still flooded and I walked down a side street to see the water lapping against the tarmac in the middle of the road. On the roads and the cycle tracks which run alongside the river, there was a covering of sand deposited by the floodwaters.
I was on my lunchtime stroll around the school grounds today when a member of the Music Department told me of a colourful bird which had flown into a window and died. I collected the bird straight away and found it to be a male greenfinch.
I was interested to see the range of colours which became apparent in the plumage when I looked closely at the bird. As well as green and yellow, there are also significant areas of grey and brown.
