CHAPTER V 

 SUMMER HOURS ON BREYDON 



THE month of June, like November, is by no means 

 distinguished for its bird-life on Breydon. Most of 

 the species that visited us in April and May have 

 gone to their northern breeding places, and were it not for 

 a few non-breeding stragglers that stay with us all summer 

 through, and one or two species, as the ringed plover and 

 redshank, which still, in scanty numbers, persist in nesting 

 in the locality, Breydon flats would be bare indeed of birds. 



A few fine adult saddle-backed gulls (Lams marinus) 

 make themselves quite at home here all summer long, spend- 

 ing the days in indolence and ease. Hour after hour they 

 will sit bunched up on the drier flats, scarcely troubling to 

 turn when some boatman passes within easy gunshot, for the 

 " artful old beggars," as nine out of ten Breydoners call them, 

 appear to be fully aware that in summer they are free from 

 molestation. With them a number of immature " greys," and 

 occasionally odd birds in the blotched plumage of their third 

 and fourth years, keep company. Shore-crabs at this season 

 appear to be their favourite prey, and they will search for 

 these with exemplary patience ; sometimes, after the tide has 

 left the flats, watching for the slightest movement of those 

 crustaceans which skulk in the mud under the prostrate 

 Zostera, and which seem to know that their safety lies in 

 perfect motionlessness. I am inclined to believe that the 

 least movement of a crab's watchful eye staring out of 

 the mud, even when carapace and leg are covered, is 

 sufficient to betray its owner to the keener yellow eye of 

 the gull, who snatches it up in a moment, often with blades 

 of " grass " hanging to it. A nip is given " amidships," and 

 the crab, killed instantaneously, is at once devoured. Pools 

 left on the flats are closely inspected, and any hapless smelt 



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