The Darkening Green

'Owls call now in the hazy afternoon, and curlews get up in the night and join their voices with the plovers' lost cries. Small birds, distracted by the fury of mating, fly hedge-high in flight and pursuit and brush past one's ear, indifferent to human presence. There is a common belief that when sight diminishes hearing is intensified - an observation made, I would say, by onlookers. I doubt whether I hear more acutely than before, but every trifle heard passes under expert scrutiny in some for