€250k to be spent on saving the corncrake

A MAJOR effort to save the rare corncrake bird has begun with Birdwatch Ireland carrying out a €250,000 project to save the threatened species in four areas of the country.

The corncrake’s distinctive call was familiar in rural Ireland but its numbers have dwindled in recent decades due to more farm machinery disturbing its meadowland habitat.

The Corncrake Conservation Programme will be carried out in Co Donegal, West Connacht, the River Shannon’s flood plains and West Kerry.

The corncrake is the only regularly breeding species in Ireland which occurs on Irish and EU lists of threatened birds. In Ireland it is protected under the Wildlife Act.

“It is regarded as high priority for conservation action in Ireland,” said a spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Heritage, which awarded the contract to Co Wicklow-based Birdwatch Ireland.

Birdwatch Ireland corncrake expert Anita Donaghy said there were currently about 150 males in Ireland compared to 45,000 in the 1970s.

“The switch from hay to silage making on farms is one of the biggest factors in the decline,” she said.

The Conservation Programme encourages farmers to delay mowing their meadows until August when eggs should be hatched.

The Programme wants the public to report sightings and it will then send field workers to the area.

Ms Donaghy said the corncrake is also common in the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia.