Easter Marshes

New calves born on windswept marshland
Fresh grass where they're settled down
Close by stand their so proud parents
With their offspring black and brown
Out atop a stony island
Avocets their courting make
Seeking there the perfect nest site
Amid the calls across the lake
Spoonbills busy sieving shallows
Oyster catchers join the throng
Little plover scurries madly
'Gainst the background of lark's song
Swallows here to barn returning
Summer's promise on the wing
Black lambs in a field a-gambolling
Breathing in the joy of Spring
In the reeds the nesting mute swans
Underneath a cloudless sky
Easter Sunday at Steart Marshes
As the sunlit hours flow by.