Dec 29th Waterloo Park, Norwich

 

 This is the last week of the year. So today, I decided to take a walk in my local park at dusk. I don't usually walk around it at this time of day due to fear of being locked in. Waterloo Park is a small urban park on the outskirts of the city centre of Norwich and apart from dog walkers and families, you just don't know what you will find here.

Starling

Starlings are still a common sight in my part of Norwich and sometimes I find where they roost some nights along Angel Road, but not tonight. Only a small flock is around this evening, gathering on trees, TV aerials and chimneys. They chatter, wheeze and whistle in the dim light before moving on out of the park.

 As light began to fade, bird noise and activity was more apparent than when I arrived at 3pm. Robins were singing and making 'tick tick tick' calls. Dunnocks were making single 'peep' calls while bouncing around the lower branches of shrubs. Blackbirds made chuckling alarm calls and wrens sounded like old football rattles. A goldcrest was just visible in a pine tree and pigeons flew from the perches with wings clapping loudly.


The sounds gradually became silent and the sky merged with pinks, blues and oranges. Clouds were just mere thin whisps of pink sandwiched between the dimming light blue glow of the sky and the dark silhoutte outline. Only the brightness of half the moon shone brighter. Skeins of gulls flew eastwards above me as well as a plane heading to Norwich Airport and were the only dark shapes I can see in the air. Street lamps in the park were like orange spheres amongst the dark leaf-less fingers of the trees and the surrounding dark blocks of houses and other buildings.

I left the park before it got too dark, but it seemed like it was almost night and everything has gone quiet. Only a few people were still walking in the near darkness of the park when I left. The winter sky produces some of the best colour displays around and it is different every morning and evening. I just can't help but to admire it. The urban setting just provides that homely backdrop to the bright colours around me.