The Corncrake

From deep within encroaching night, there sounds a solitary corncrake in the gloom. His rasping never ending call surrounds and echoes far beneath a cloudy moon. A very private bird, he still must tell the world at large of how he seeks a mate to woo and win and then with her to dwell in this his covert place inviolate. Flag irises bloom in June out in the west. The machair colours the Atlantic shores. It’s here the corncrakes choose to build their nest, but she alone her tiny brood ensures, and sees them grow and ready to take wing, for her sweet mate has gone philandering and yet again, before the summer's through, he’ll call to seek a new love to pursue. Such is the way with corncrakes.