collective nouns

Bellowing bullfinches

Never heard a bullfinch, so I don't know if they bellow, but it isn't an easy word to associate with...

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put in a good word

A claver of birds

A Scottish or Northern English dialect word which seems to have travelled to North America.   It means to talk idly...

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a quote to note

The impatient shout of a thrush

A few years ago I noted Keats' delight in a thrush in his garden, and so found a kindred...

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metaphors

Easy laughter

A merry simile for an easy laugh, though I never thought of woodpeckers as laughing. See another

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a quote to note

Eagles colour the country they inhabit

The opening of this quotation had me asking how we 'colour the country we inhabit'?  I also like the following...

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put in a good word

Whippering

'... the whippering cries of golden plover.'

This seems to be a Williamson coinage to describe the cry of a...

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triologisms

Rock-hole glory

A memorable image of a glorious, dreadful creature hanging out in weather-gouged holes in rocks.

'Nothing can really...

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put in a good word

Skobby

Found in Dorothy Wordsworth, another word for 'chaffinch', though it seems obsolete.  Not that this should prevent our reviving it,...

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triologisms

Million-fingered responsiveness

Nicolson captures the single signal transmitted through a vast flock of geese, yielding a 'million-fingered responsiveness'.

'They are...

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put in a good word

Shrilling

'Shrilling of the sandpipers.'   First time I've seen the adjective 'shrill' used as a noun, let alone to describe the...

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metaphors

Detonations of flight

An original way to capture the sudden soaring of a flock of birds.  A few weeks ago, a flock of...

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put in a good word

A covert of coots

A covert is a shelter or a hiding place, from which you might study coots.  It can also refer to...

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