Corncrakes, What corncrakes?

Monday 20th June 2011
Yet again another beautiful day so I let the ducklings and their mum out of their little hutch and into one of the big pens. At least I can now top up the food and water without being attacked by the mother duck. She was really aggressive when they were in the small coop but now that she has got room to get her babies out of the way she has calmed down.

There have been two corncrakes calling on South Ronaldsay recently and as it is rare to have them so close, I though that I would go down for a listen. (You would think that I would know better by now wouldn't you?) Anyway, it was a nice night so at 11PM (They only call at night) I toddled off to South Ron.

The nights now are what they call Simmerdim. It never goes really dark. At 11:15 I got to Windwick where one of the corncrakes has been calling. Although it was dusky, it was still light enough to still see all the colours of the flowers along the roadside and in the fields. I could hear the gentle swell of the sea and the cries of the birds. It was idylic. The only thing that I could not hear was a corncrake. After about 30 minutes I decided to go to near Gaira where the other corncrake was. Although I heard two birds that i could not identify calling from the undergrowth, yet again no corncrake. Well now there's a surprise.

On Tuesday I had a lie-in before once again doing chicken stuff. This time making a hutch for tiny chicks.