Views from a cold January afternoon

I often cycle in the afternoon from 1pm to 4.30pm. It means around this time of the year I’m cycling back into Oxford around sunset. Sunset can be a magical time; it also is a time for birds to congregate and look for the best roosting spots for the night.

The photos above were taken on a flat road from Eynsham to Oxford. I have been on it many times, but today took a little detour up a dead end farm track and looked back across the flat plains. I was attracted by the quantity of birds flying around – sitting on electricity pylons and the trees.

There is something about trees in winter which I find more fascinating than in summer.

The big birds are the rooks or crows. The smaller dots in the background are starlings. There was a mini starling murmuation – though they were heading off somewhere else for their final dance of the evening.

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Earlier in the ride, I was heading from Chipping Norton to a small village called Churchill. This is Churchill looking into the sun.

Two minutes later, in Churchill itself, the fading sun is at my back and you get a very different impression of the same church.

For a small church this is very imposing. It is remarkably similar in design to Magdalen Tower, Oxford.

BTW: Earlier in the ride, I went past Blenheim Palace – the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. Though there is no connection with the village of Churchill.