I've written what would appear to be my first poem of 2023, though the bird it celebrates was seen some years ago, and the photo was taken in summer so may seem inappropriate for the scenery described (though anyone who knows the Calder Valley knows what our summers can be like!) Yellowhammer Lemon-sherbet-yellow breast, you flash grey rocks in spritzy glimmerings of vigour: creamy chrome, a lucid sun, buffy blush of banana coloured beauty, your icing sugar tint is topped by peppery flecks of black and white, your golden face ball-bearing-eyed, your fluttery shape so rare a sight in this wet and windy place as to feel a sort of postcard from the Tropics.