The Oxfordshire Ornothologist’s Bird List
Beside the lake, with the call or croak of
corncrake, beyond the slough of despond caste
off by snake and slurry pond, the upright heron, its stance straight as a rod.
Heard from afar, the waiting nightjar.
Seen in a wood, a thicket troglodyte in its nest – the bum barrel at rest, sitting on its eggs.
Hoopoe onomatopoeic cuckoo seen and heard nearby.
In a sequoia giganteum, a giant redwood tree, amid the branches
heard high aloft a lone gold crested wren, the smallest
British bird known. Picking its way
among the cone, the second smallest, the firecrest, their songs both barely audible.
But in contrast, the jenny wren, the loudest on the list, even in flight.
Further into this wood, the woodcocks’ weaving dodging flight
make ‘doubtful progress’ likely.
Nearer the lake again, the crane with its majestic stance
stands apropos the land.
[Notes: Slough is another word for skin. Bum barrel is a dialect name for the long-tailed tit, as used by poets such as John Clare.]