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AT MIDNIGHT the sky is completely clouded over, so I go to bed. Unfortunately it isn't until twenty to five that I wake up again. By then I've missed the predicted peak of the Leonid meteor shower, but at least there is now a clear patch of sky between the Plough and Leo.
I watch for half an hour, lying on the desk looking up through the skylight window. In the section of sky that fills my field of view I see no more than one meteor every three minutes. Some are faint. Three of them leave a glowing trace in the atmosphere, which quickly fades. All the trails appear to radiate from the crescent of Leo's head. I've drawn the trail larger than it appeared. They appeared as more than pin-points of light, but not much more.
Frosty Morning
There's a hard frost on the sheltered slopes at the entrance to the wood this morning. It seems to have brought more birds into the comparative warmth of the Calder Valley. Black-headed and a few Herring Gulls are joined by Crows in the fields.
The unexpected call of the Herring Gull reminds us of summer at coast.
Blackbirds have gathered in the old overgrown Elm hedge along the top path of the wood. But the biggest gathering of birds is in the trees and thorn bushes by the canal. There are a handful of Magpies along with rather more Fieldfares and at least a hundred Redwings.
Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@daelnet.co.uk'
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