Tuesday 9 October 2007

Sun going down by Swindon Football Ground

My walk home from work takes me past the illustrious Swindon Town Football Club. Unless you are a Swindon Town football supporter not much to appreciate one might think, but even STFC has its magic. At this time of year the starlings are gathering on the floodlight towers - as the nights draw in they gather together in large flocks to roost in urban areas on buildings, in groups of trees or, as in this case, on the floodlight towers of the football ground. Their numbers are also boosted by northern European starlings who migrate to this country to over-winter. In just a few weeks I will be making my journey home in the darkness and will miss the urgent twilight chattering of the starlings preparing to roost for the night

The breath-taking beauty of our cosmos is all around us - tonight it was in the sun sinking between a football stadium and a line of poplars.