Corncrake reintroduction success

The corncrake was formerly a widespread bird of hay meadows and crops across the UK, and Europe, but this dove-sized bird - a distant relative of the crane - has not been able to cope with the mechanization of grass cutting, which destroys nests and young birds.

Functionally extinct in England
By 1920 the bird had already become very scarce in southern England. The decline continued through the 20th Century until, by the 1990s, corncrakes were restricted almost entirely to the islands on the north and west coasts of Scotland, where a less intensive form of agriculture - crofting - had allowed the bird to retain a restricted foothold in the UK.

Reintroduction project
In 2001, a joint project - involving Natural England, the RSPB and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and, more recently, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust - was set-up to reintroduce corncrakes to England, at the RSPB's Nene Washes nature reserve in Cambridgeshire

The project involves releasing hand-reared corncrakes, bred at ZSLWhipsnade Zoo, after acclimatisation in release pens at the Nene Washes. Corncrakes are only summer visitors to the UK, so in autumn the birds migrate to central Africa for the winter. Their return to the release site can only be detected by the loud rasping calls of the adult males trying to attract a mate. Releases began in earnest in 2003 and corncrakes bred in the wild at the Nene Washes for the first time for many decades in 2004. Since then, a total of 23 adult male corncrakes have been counted at the reserve.

Wild bred birds
A sample of 11 of these has been temporarily captured to check for numbered identification rings placed on the chicks' legs before release. Nine of the 11 have been zoo-bred birds set free in the previous summer. However, two males were found not be ringed - probably the result of breeding in the wild in the previous year.

Dr Mark Avery is the RSPB's Conservation Director, he said: "It is a small but significant miracle that these birds, raised by keepers in a zoo, are capable of migrating successfully to Africa and back. Restoring lost wildlife is often difficult and it is better not to lose it in the first place. The RSPB-led corncrake conservation programme in Scotland demonstrates that declining populations can be turned around by concerted action. This re-introduction means that we can try to spread that success and return the corncrake to places where its chances of recolonising naturally are slight".

Jamie Graham is the senior keeper in charge of corncrake breeding at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo. He said: "This is fantastic news and it's great to know that birds we have bred here have made it back safely from migration. It means the project is showing very promising signs that a sustainable population is being created at the Nene Washes from a captive bred group.

Nene Washes
The Nene Washes are some of the finest floodplain meadows in the country, home to wintering waterfowl and breeding wetland birds like shoveler and snipe. The RSPB manages several hundred acres of the Washes, using the traditional methods of grazing livestock and hay-making, while taking special care to protect corncrakes and other nesting birds.

Due to the sensitivity of the area, visitors are not given access to the Nene Washes.

Corncrakes
Corncrakes, which like to inhabit areas of long grass and haymeadows, are rarely seen but male corncrakes have a distinctive, rasping ‘crex-crex' call enabling conservationists to count the birds and assess populations. Expanding the range of the corncrake is a commitment of a government-backed wildlife action plan, but without reintroduction to suitable sites, it seemed unlikely that the corncrake would be able to recolonise new sites away from north and west Scotland.

In 2007, there were 1,278 corncrakes in Great Britain, up from around 600 calling males in 1998, and up from 1,042 in 2004.