The Corncrake Heard No More

My memory take me back long years to when i was young boy To evenings in mid Summer in June and in July The corncrake called in darkened mead the same notes o'er and o'er But now in part of Ireland where i lived the corncrake heard no more. In most of their old breeding grounds the corncrakes now don't breed The earlier cutting of the grass stripped cover they did need The silage harvester took it's toll their nests and eggs destroyed And in green meadow near my home the voice of corncrake died The corncrake's voice no longer heard in meads of Duhallow And I've not heard their familiar calls for thirty years or so The earlier cutting of the grass left the birds with nowhere to hide And the corncrakes have disappeared from my native countryside On summer evenings long ago some hours after nightfall In darkened meadows near my home the corncrakes did call But the migrant rail no longer heard lost to posterity And that voice i loved when i was young now just a memory