Lately I have been reading a fascinating book, given to me by my sister, entitled When There Were Birds by Roy and Leslie Adkins.  

The book graphically describes the terrible destruction of bird life over the centuries, to witness what we have today, compared to years gone by.

I thought I would share one passage in particular that caught my attention.  It is from a gentleman in the Cotswolds about the Lapwing - a bird that we rarely see and one like so many that are on the Red endangered list.  

I hope you enjoy this estract:

"One autumn evening in the 1890's in the village of Ablington in the Cotswolds, the young squire Arthur Gibbs watched numerous lapwings, with their black, white and iridescent green plumage and wavering flight, able to change direction as if being directed by an unseen presence:

a large flock of lapwings, gave a very fine display a sort of serpentine dance to the tune of the setting sun, all for my edification. They could not quite make up their minds to settle on a brown field.

No sooner had they touched the ground than they would rise again with shrill cries, flash here and flash there, faster and faster, but all in perfect time and all in perfect order- now flying in long drawn out lines, now in battalions; bowing here, bowing there, now they would 'right about turn' and curtsey to the sun.

A thousand trained ballet dancers could not have been in better time. It was as if all joined hands, dressed in green and white; for at every turn a thousand white breasts gleamed in the purple sunset."

If this isn't a call to action, I don't know what is!