A soaring song and a well-stocked larder stir memories of species lost

Ariège, Midi-Pyrénées, France What a beauty he was, with pink waistcoat, highwayman’s mask, chestnut wings, dove-grey skull-cap: the butcher bird, the red-backed shrike, guarding his larder
Were it in Britain, the wildflower meadow by my house would be charged with riotous assembly: self-heal, marjoram, borage, restharrow, oxeye daisies, mallows, clovers, poppies, vetches, astounding in their abundance and colour as hay-harvest approaches. Wind cross-hatched its long grasses to gleaming fil