In Dykes And Drains Of Claraghatlea Poem by Francis Duggan

In dykes and drains of Claraghatlea
By the rank rushes hid away
The snipe are probing for their prey
Amongst the brown mud and the grey.

With their long bills they probe around
On boggy and on soggy ground
For invertebrates and slugs and snails
And tiny wriggly things with wriggly tails.

The wild brown snipe of mankind shy
And they hide themselves as you walk by
But if you venture near they yield to fright
And they take off in low zig zag flight.

In wet rushy fields of Claraghatlea
Unsuitable for crops or hay
In scrape on ground the snipe their speckled eggs lay
In Spring in late April and May.

In Spring the male snipe take to flight
And you hear them under the cloak of night
And o'er boggy places of Millstreet
With their wings and tails they make a goat like bleat.

And this how they mark their territory
A bird you hear but seldom see
A bird of mankind very shy
Who sit and hide as you walk by.

In dykes and drains of Claraghatlea
By the rank rushes hid away
The snipe are probing for their prey
Amongst the brown mud and the grey