Breeding boost for concrakes

AN ATTEMPT to re-establish the corncrake in England has met its first success, as a family party of month-old corncrake chicks has been signted near Peterborough.

The observation was made on the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds‘s Nene Washes reserve in Cambridgeshire, which has been the focus of an on-going attempt to reintroduce the corncrake to England.

This is probably the first time corncrakes have nested in Cambridgeshire since 1955.

The project is a collaboration between the RSPB, English Nature and the Zoological Society of London.

The RSPB‘s director of conservation, Mark Avery, said: “This is tremendous news and a real shot in the arm for the Corncrake Project.”

“To get confirmation that corncrakes have nested in the wild in only the second year of the project is a really encouraging sign for the future and shows that the habitat has been managed so that it will support breeding corncrakes,” Dr Avery said.

The corncrake – the world‘s most threatened bird to breed regularly in the UK – started to disappear from the English countryside more than a century ago, because of the introduction of more mechanised and intensive farming methods.

In 2003, 55 corncrakes reared at ZSL‘s Whipsnade Wild Animal Park were released at the RSPB‘s Nene Washes nature reserve, and a further 59 have been released this year.

The project aims to release 100 young birds a year for the next 3 years.

DEFRA minister Ben Bradshaw, who helped release some of the young corncrakes last year, said: “The haunting sound of the corncrake used to be the sound of the English countryside in the summer.

“It will be marvelous if this re-introduction continues to succeed.”