Thorpe Mere 17 



Roth are in perfect breeding plumage, and you stop and watch 

 thcni fur half-an-hour till, wearied at last of the persistent mobbing 

 by the gulls, they slowly rise, spreading their large wings and trailing 

 their legs rudderwise, and so sail away for the Aldeburgh river. 

 Neither on the groinid nor on the wing ha\'e they uttered a sound. 



A pair or two of Greenshanks are calling away to the south, 

 and \-our puntsman speedily brings them within view by a well- 

 imitated whistle. W'himbrel have occasionally passed overhead 

 since you have been on the mere, and now on the big flat you observe 

 a small flock of five birds, which at first sight look like Curlews, 

 but which the glasses show to be smaller birds, with shorter beaks 

 and a white streak down the middle of the crown. These are 

 W'himbrel, very much like Curlews in their behaviour, but infinitely 

 more difficult to bring to call, though less wary of danger. 



The morning is now getting well advanced, so you run the punt 

 under the wall, and proceed to look over the middle mere. There are 

 a good man\' birds on it, but nothing that you have not already 

 seen on the mere proper, so you decide to walk down one of the 

 ditches and up another, to see what Sandpipers are about. You 

 have hardly started, before a Common Sandpiper springs from under 

 the bank, almost at your feet, and witli a loud, penetrating cry, 

 dashes round a corner, and settles again abruptly a hundred and 

 fift\' yards further up the same ditch. You rise one or two more of 

 the same species as you pass along. Then a pair of larger and darker 

 birds, with broad, black bars on their tails, start off with loud, voci- 

 ferous cries that startle everything in the neighbourhood, and fly 

 on as if they have determined to leave the country altogether. 

 Then suddenlv they wheel round and drop almost to the ground, 

 alter their minds and rise again, and, finally, plunge down into the 

 same ditch again some considerable way further up. These are Green 

 Sandpipers. A closely allied species, the Wood Sandpiper, may often 

 be seen in these same ditches in the autumn, but rarely in the spring. 



However, you trudge the ditch down to the very end, in the 

 hope of seeing something more ; but beyond flushing several other 

 Common Sandpipers, and the same pair of Green Sandpipers, you 

 see nothing more in this mere. 



The third mere is on you way home, and you cross it, rather tired 

 and hungrv, on your way home to breakfast. Here 5'ou see several 

 pairs of Greenshanks, a good number of Snipe — the males indulging 

 in their wonderful musical flights, so that the air is full of their 

 " drummings." Redshanks are plentiful, of course ; there are more 

 Sandpipers, and one fair-sized Wader that you can onl\' see on the 

 wing — brown in colour with a soft protesting note, not unlike the 

 Knot's — possibly a Reeve, your gunner thinks. This is the last bird 

 of any interest, and you reach the town again about half-past nine 

 o'clock, tired and hungry, but very well pleased with what may 

 be fairly taken as a record day on this small piece of water, mud 

 and marshland. 



B nth June, igo2. 



