250 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



than once been visited by an eagle. The great bird 

 is almost always a young example of the white-tailed 

 species, though, if it fall a victim to the keeper's gun 

 or traps, the chances are ten to one that it will be 

 recorded in the local papers as " a fine golden-eagle." 

 At long intervals an Osprey may be seen to flap and 

 circle above the tidal lagoon, plunging to seize a 

 mullet which it bears away in its claws. The coarse 

 tussock-grass of the marshes is full of the runs of field- 

 mice ; these have proved an attraction to the Short- 

 eared Owls, one or more of which may be seen upon 

 the wing, not only in the twilight, but at all hours of 

 the day. Kingfishers frequent the half-frozen marsh- 

 drains. Every morning, as soon as the sun has got 

 the better of the light purple mist which hangs over the 

 sea, a great flock of Dunlin is on the move, looking in 

 the distance like a shifting cloud of smoke, then 

 wheeling so that we catch the gleam of sunshine on 

 five hundred snowy breasts. Otherwise there are not 

 many wading birds about, but the Oyster -catchers still 

 follow the tide as it retires, paddling about on the ooze, 

 and, when the ebb has transformed the lagoon into a 

 narrow channel lost amidst wide-stretching mud-banks, 

 Curlew and Redshanks flock, as earlier in the season, 

 to their favourite feeding-grounds. 



Now to hie northward, away from tidal-flats and 

 oozy creeks, to a bold, rocky coast, and to the sharp 

 Yorkshire air. Keen is the salt tang of the north-easter 



