Thomas Alfred Coward

“ Birds come and go; the watcher can never guess what he may see any morning, nor how many thousands have drifted by during the night unseen, unheard. The grey geese, in small skeins, passed at sea; ducks of many kinds floated by, or took flights close to the water ”

“ There is a post office and telegraph station, from which the wires run along the ridge; at intervals beneath these wires in autumn lie the bodies of many migratory birds; for in their incoming flight on dark or misty nights the deadly wires take frequent toll. Traders' carts follow no regular route on their journey to the Head; they must adapt themselves to the height and state of the tide. ”

“ On dark or foggy nights the southward flight of many individuals is checked by the dazzling rays from the lighthouse; even in November the list of casualties may number two or three hundred birds of a dozen different species ”

“ Dead goldcrests on the tide line were far too common, and some even reached land safely and perished from fatigue; it was almost possible to pick them from the bushes and marram when they first reached land.
Fatal, too, are the wires which run along the ridge. After a big arrival of knots we enjoyed knot pie, all our victims being unfortunates which were running about the sand and road with broken wings or other injuries. With a wind behind them birds would strike so violently that a wing would be torn off or both legs shattered ”

“ There were black-headed gulls in the Humber, and some with common gulls following the plough; there were a few herring-gulls about, but the numbers of these species which were passing was trifling compared with the darker mantled brethren. Occasionally some of the larger gulls went out seaward to seek a shoal of fish, but as a rule all day and every day the stream steadily flowed south. How many thousands passed each day? Some travelled in irregular order, some in well-fanned chevrons, or in long lines, those to the rear benefiting by the air disturbance of the advance wings. ”