The 50% increase in corncrake numbers over the last five years could not have been achieved without the “most positive engagement imaginable” from farmers and landowners, according to Dr John Carey.
Carey was the man tasked with building a team and a programme to pluck the iconic bird from jaws of extinction, and he is fulsome in his praise of the part played by farmers in the Corncrake LIFE project.
“We simply could not have done anything without the farmers and landowners,” said Carey.
“We got so much input and feedback from farmers, contractors and people who really knew their land that it became an amazingly collaborative venture. The participants in the project are what have made it such a joy to work on,” the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) scientist said.
Around 250 farmers are now managing close to 1,500ha under the Corncrake LIFE project. The vast majority of these farmers are in Galway, Mayo and Donegal.
The aim of the project is to create and protect habitats in which the shy and secretive corncrake can successfully breed and raise its chicks.
The corncrake’s distinctive call was once a normal feature of the countryside but numbers have been in freefall since the 1970s and the bird’s cry is now restricted primarily to small pockets along the north and west coasts.
However, the Corncrake LIFE project has halted this decline and is slowly rebuilding numbers.
Survey
This year’s survey found that there were 281 corncrake territories recorded, which is an increase of 48 or 20% on last year, and a 70% lift on the 2018 figure.
“Consistently over the past five years the project has had the most positive engagement imaginable. I think farmers see us as a genuine team of people who want to work with them and support them,” said Carey.
The reaction of farmers to hearing the corncrake in parts of Kerry, Cork and Waterford - areas where the bird had not been for decades – illustrates the positive disposition of most landowners towards the conservation project, said Ciaran Reaney, who co-ordinates the NPWS corncrake survey.
“Farmers and local landowners were really keen to work with us to give the birds a chance to breed which always indicates how much people will work to help nature when given some support and guidance,” he explained.
“We had chicks that hatched as late as early August which shows how crucial the delayed mowing is for saving the species,” Reaney added.
The Corncrake LIFE project encourages farmers to establish large patches of nettles or crops in which the birds can hide and protect chicks.
The mowing of silage and hay is also delayed until mid-August to enable the birds to raise broods in safety.
In addition, contractors have been encouraged to mow crops from the centre of the field outwards, rather than from the outside in, and to attach flushing bars to mowers to reduce chick mortality.
The willingness of farmers to enthusiastically take on board and recognise the importance of these actions has been critical to the success of the Corncrake LIFE project, Carey said.
“It’s been a great project to work on and we have built relationships that will go long into the future,” he added.
Corncrake numbers have increased by 50% over the last five years.
Black cattle graze ‘white cow’s island’
The reintroduction of cattle onto Inis Bó Finne off the Donegal coast is an example of the innovative initiatives which the Corncrake LIFE project has spawned.
Cattle had not grazed on the 300ac island for over four decades but were brought back this year as part of the project.
Conservation grazing by cattle vastly improves the habitat condition for corncrakes, researchers have found.
Some of the cattle which moved onto the island this summer are owned by Dunfanaghy suckler farmer John Jacob.
His son Danny, who is aged 10, was talking to lads from the NPWS last year when they were on their way out to Inis Bó Finne on survey work, Jacob explained.
“They told Danny they were interested in restocking the island with cattle to eat down the grasses that the sheep wouldn’t graze, and he offered to take out his calf,” he said.
From there, Jacob got talking to the NPWS and agreed to provide the agency with cattle to graze parts of the island.
The seven yearling heifers were moved onto the island in late summer and have gotten on the finest, Jacob said.
They will probably be on the island until the end of this month.
That Jacob’s cattle are mostly Angus and Limousin crosses is somewhat ironic, given that Inis Bó Finne means the island of the white cow as Gaeilge.
But the corncrakes won’t mind that.
The 50% increase in corncrake numbers over the last five years could not have been achieved without the “most positive engagement imaginable” from farmers and landowners, according to Dr John Carey.
Carey was the man tasked with building a team and a programme to pluck the iconic bird from jaws of extinction, and he is fulsome in his praise of the part played by farmers in the Corncrake LIFE project.
“We simply could not have done anything without the farmers and landowners,” said Carey.
“We got so much input and feedback from farmers, contractors and people who really knew their land that it became an amazingly collaborative venture. The participants in the project are what have made it such a joy to work on,” the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) scientist said.
Around 250 farmers are now managing close to 1,500ha under the Corncrake LIFE project. The vast majority of these farmers are in Galway, Mayo and Donegal.
The aim of the project is to create and protect habitats in which the shy and secretive corncrake can successfully breed and raise its chicks.
The corncrake’s distinctive call was once a normal feature of the countryside but numbers have been in freefall since the 1970s and the bird’s cry is now restricted primarily to small pockets along the north and west coasts.
However, the Corncrake LIFE project has halted this decline and is slowly rebuilding numbers.
Survey
This year’s survey found that there were 281 corncrake territories recorded, which is an increase of 48 or 20% on last year, and a 70% lift on the 2018 figure.
“Consistently over the past five years the project has had the most positive engagement imaginable. I think farmers see us as a genuine team of people who want to work with them and support them,” said Carey.
The reaction of farmers to hearing the corncrake in parts of Kerry, Cork and Waterford - areas where the bird had not been for decades – illustrates the positive disposition of most landowners towards the conservation project, said Ciaran Reaney, who co-ordinates the NPWS corncrake survey.
“Farmers and local landowners were really keen to work with us to give the birds a chance to breed which always indicates how much people will work to help nature when given some support and guidance,” he explained.
“We had chicks that hatched as late as early August which shows how crucial the delayed mowing is for saving the species,” Reaney added.
The Corncrake LIFE project encourages farmers to establish large patches of nettles or crops in which the birds can hide and protect chicks.
The mowing of silage and hay is also delayed until mid-August to enable the birds to raise broods in safety.
In addition, contractors have been encouraged to mow crops from the centre of the field outwards, rather than from the outside in, and to attach flushing bars to mowers to reduce chick mortality.
The willingness of farmers to enthusiastically take on board and recognise the importance of these actions has been critical to the success of the Corncrake LIFE project, Carey said.
“It’s been a great project to work on and we have built relationships that will go long into the future,” he added.
Corncrake numbers have increased by 50% over the last five years.
Black cattle graze ‘white cow’s island’
The reintroduction of cattle onto Inis Bó Finne off the Donegal coast is an example of the innovative initiatives which the Corncrake LIFE project has spawned.
Cattle had not grazed on the 300ac island for over four decades but were brought back this year as part of the project.
Conservation grazing by cattle vastly improves the habitat condition for corncrakes, researchers have found.
Some of the cattle which moved onto the island this summer are owned by Dunfanaghy suckler farmer John Jacob.
His son Danny, who is aged 10, was talking to lads from the NPWS last year when they were on their way out to Inis Bó Finne on survey work, Jacob explained.
“They told Danny they were interested in restocking the island with cattle to eat down the grasses that the sheep wouldn’t graze, and he offered to take out his calf,” he said.
From there, Jacob got talking to the NPWS and agreed to provide the agency with cattle to graze parts of the island.
The seven yearling heifers were moved onto the island in late summer and have gotten on the finest, Jacob said.
They will probably be on the island until the end of this month.
That Jacob’s cattle are mostly Angus and Limousin crosses is somewhat ironic, given that Inis Bó Finne means the island of the white cow as Gaeilge.
But the corncrakes won’t mind that.
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