Farewell to autumn
The frost has bitten and winter finally arrived. In Banhaw Wood, after a particularly colourful autumn, the trees have mostly shed their leaves. On the aspen a few hang on, stiff yellow flags rattling delicately in the breeze. The more sheltered hazels are still in leaf, but they are flaccid and defeated. Many oaks are bare, but some still hold rusty brown leaves, and one moderately sized oak is notably verdant, as if in defiance of the near onset of December.
The ash trees dropped their leaves a while ago; they stand in naked greyness, adorned with many hanging bunches of dark keys. In one ash, two pairs of bullfinches flit between bunches of seeds. Each grips a twig and leans upside down to pluck a seed, then rights itself and dexterously unsheathes the kernel with its thick bill. This behaviour makes them look more parrots than finches, particularly the males with their gaudy orange-pink fronts and neat black caps.
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