Until recently the skies above the farm have only been adorned with vast shoals of swimming jackdaws, each October to February evening, hurtling about, enjoying life to the full, especially if the moon is out to play with. But now we have a small, elite display troup of Red Arrow-like starlings cutting geometric patterns above the ash trees.
The starlings hardly ever visit the bird table, preferring to reside in the barn owls' oak and the solitary pair we first saw have multiplied and a quick, wooooshing-past head count gives the impression of 60, all of whom join hands to sky dance.
And it's something to wait for and watch for and sigh for:both circuses with their own excitement levels:both teaching us mortals how to live.
Birds know it all:if and when it is going to rain, where to find the best food, where and how to build their nests, when dire weather is on its way and how to show off on a Saturday night...
The daytime belongs to the buzzards and ravens, both angling their finger-feathers to navigate their gliders and to the ever-singing goldcrests, ever-friendly robins, enchanting tree creepers, valley-dipping, prehistoric-looking green woodpeckers, smart, hatted willow tits, and all their friends.

"...and small brown birds, wisely reitterating endlessly what no man learned yet, in or out of school..."(Coleridge)