Corncrakes

In the past week, I’ve had two sightings of a pair of birds. The first time, I saw them strolling through the garden, bold as brass, looking for insects, and then yesterday I saw them in the adjoining potato field. At first I took to be partridges, but now I believe them to be corncrakes. The colouring wasn’t right for partridges, and they had the long necks characteristic of corncrakes. Needless to say, my camera wasn’t to hand on either occasion, so I can’t provide visual evidence. I also haven’t yet heard their eponymous, and distinctive, "Crex crex" call. I’ll have to go out early one morning with a metal comb and a pencil to imitate it, and see if I can lure them in…