spring again

A bird appears. Silky smooth and dark like chocolate in the enveloping shadow cast by the aspens on the other side of the drove.

It's an upright bird, not a creeper- not a lawn hopper- it's feet never touch the ground.

Then it's away, flashing first across the hollow shadow, then a sunlit bush and over the crowning ash trees.

Further along the drove two Willow Warblers, mustard bellied youngsters, dart among the elm leaves, stopping only to practice next summer's tune. A Chiffchaff joins them and all of a sudden it's as if May has returned full of Spring-Song.