Flight of the goshawk

South Downs, West Sussex There's an explosion of flapping wings above the forest as dozens of wood pigeons rise in panic

All things must pass, even this rain. No sooner does this thought occur to me, as I look across the mixed woodland and fields from my vantage point, than a rainbow arches from the ground into the cloud, brightening in the strengthening sun. The warmer, dry air seems to cast a spell across the landscape, and it comes alive.

Wood pigeons spring up and criss-cross the sky. A buzzard cries a plaintive "mew" from the top of a prominent oak. Gangs of finches and buntings - goldfinches, chaffinches, bramblings, yellowhammers - bounce through the air over the fields, and settle in the tops of the trees around me, whistling and chirruping. I watch the rainbow slowly fade. Columns of vapour rise from the green conifers in the distance.

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