MIDWAY through this absorbing account of his experiences as a shorebird warden near Spurn on the Yorkshire Coast, Richard Boon makes an extraordinary claim.
"There seems to be a new trend developing - collecting eggs not for their own sake but to incubate them and raise the young domestically, and then to breed from those young for the benefit of those who collect the birds themselves rather than simply their eggs.
There is no reason to dispute this, but nor does the author offer any evidence. Can it really be the case? Surely scope here for undercover sleuthing by some birding Sherlock Holmes.
In the same section of the book, Clinging to The Edge, Boon offers further commentary about old-style egg-collecting, once a recognised hobby but now an offence. "The impulse seems to be highly individual and pathologically obsessive," he writes. "The thrill of the treasure hunt."
Happily, Boon and his colleagues recorded no case of this sort of criminality while wardening -both night and day - the small but important colony of Little Terns at Beacon Ponds, but, as he says, it was essential to remain on "high alert".
In this delightful publication, Boon, a retired academic, chronicles his time with the the terns during the length of the 2022 season, studying their flight patterns, their feeding, their courtship and their interaction with other breeding denizens of the shoreline, notably Ringed Plovers, Oystercatchers and Avocets
Comparing his notes for summer 2022 with historical records, he takes the opportunity to acknowledge the diligence and tenacity of various bird-loving Victorians, including John Cordeaux and at least two parson-naturalists, in their various campaigns to halt wilful slaughter of terns and other seabirds often for 'sport'.
But much of the text focuses on the endless challenges of wardening - mostly overcoming the menace of human and canine disturbance, albeit usually inadvertent, but also safeguarding the birds from predators such as foxes, snakes, Carrion Crows and raptors of various species. The chief defence of the colony was an electrical fence but its maintenance was never less than time-consuming and challenging.
There is nothing pompous or stodgy about Boon's approach to his material. By contrast, he writes in a wry, ironic and sometimes self-deprecating style which keeps the narrative bubbling along at pace.
His text is peppered with colourful analogies as for example: "There are few place more desolate than a seabird colony after the seabirds have left - it's like a stage set after the play has ended"
The photographs, many taken by the author, are excellent not least because most have been taken at medium range so that they provide habitat context (including sky) as well as the terns themselves.
Credit, too, for the book's arresting cover - based on superbly creative artwork by Robert Greenhalf.
Subtitled A Year in The Life of A Little Tern Colony, this excellent book is the latest title from ornithological specialists, Pelagic (www.pelagicpublishing.com). It is on sale now at £25.