This morning I visited a marsh on the Scarborough / Pickering border. The first birds that I saw were a family of Trumpeter Swans with seven young. The parents appeared to be giving a grooming lesson.

Cliff Swallows are amazing “potters” as you can see from these photos of their handiwork under a bridge:

Wait at a marsh long enough and you have a good chance of spotting an Osprey. This one performed several flyover missions:

Other birds:

NATURE POETRY

Cool in the very furnace of July
The water-meadows lie;
The green stalks of their grasses and their flowers
They still refresh at fountains never dry.                  – John Drinkwater (1882–1937)

Miles Hearn