Rooks in the fading light

On the 22nd of August 2015, I spent a lovely hour in our garden experiencing the light fading away and the creatures of the day finding their way home.  I counted rooks as they flew past our house to their roost - probably Lime Tree Avenue. When I started, at 7:30pm on the sky was still blue sprinkled with little white clouds.  A gentle pink glow on the horizon was the only clue that the day was ending.  Half a dozen house martins had just wheeled overhead and a red admiral paid a last visit to our buddleia.  Tiny hints of yellow showed that the cigar-shaped evening primrose buds had just started to unroll.

In half-an-hour clouds turned from white to slate.

For the first quarter hour, there was just a trickle of rooks.  By 8pm, the trickle had turned into a flood. One group of birds was about 40 strong and they flew over too fast to count properly.

One group of rooks.

As a dragonfly feasted on evening insects, the flood slackened. By 8:20pm, they had all gone. I had counted about 400 rooks past our house in less than an hour.

When the rooks passed our house.

During that hour, the light had nearly gone, moths had started to fly and the evening primrose flowers had opened. So much had changed in such as short time.

Evening primrose flower.