Birds of the Week

In the half-dark of Tuesday morning, a heron laboriously flapped up from the bank of the Kennet.  A  carrion crow flew up behind it and made as if to nip at the heron's tail but the heron just carried on upwards, and then turned north towards the Thames. The crow swooped back down to the bank, as if satisfied at having driven the off the large intruder, but I suspect that the heron hadn't even noticed it.

On Thursday evening, under a cold clear sky, a red kite gliding northwards over the Polish Catholic Church on Watlington Street, forked tail and outstretched wings that didn't beat for the whole of the 30 seconds that it was within my view.