Rfalconcam Forum

Cats are attracted to the calls made by male corncrake

Pet owners on the Western Isles have been asked by the RSPB to add bells to the collars of their cats to help protect one of Scotland's rarest birds.

Conservation officer Martin Scott said corncrake have been killed by cats after migrating to the islands to breed.

He said the bells could heighten the birds' chances of survival.

Good concentrations of corncrake are thought to exist on Lewis, North and South Uist, Tiree and Coll.

Mr Scott said: "Every year I see corncrakes that have been killed by domestic cats.

"It's a real shame, for a bird that has just flown in from Africa, but by taking a few simple measures it may be possible to reduce the death toll."

'Slipping away'

Corncrakes are most at risk during the night when male corncrakes start calling and attract the attentions of predators, the conservation officer said.

He added: "It would be great if cat owners in corncrake areas would keep their pets in during the hours of darkness.

"Another useful thing to do would be to add a bell to their collars. That heightens the chances of the corncrakes slipping away from the danger."

The species is a long-distance migratory species that winter in sub-Saharan Africa and come to the UK in summer to breed.

Corncrakes arrive in Scotland from Africa in mid-April

Their favoured habitat is tall grasses and herbs, particularly hay and silage meadows.

However, in the late 19th Century the mechanisation of farming led to crops being harvested quicker and corncrake population plummeted and became restricted to the Hebridean islands on the west coast of Scotland.

In 1993, the British population was estimated at just 480 males heard calling for mates.

But by 2003 this figure had almost doubled to 832 males.

Subsequent annual counts have shown that the population increase continued throughout the 2000s, and in 2007 the population in its Scottish strongholds hit a high of more than 1,270 calling males.

However, this number declined in 2008 by 8% to 1,140.

  Corncrake, Wow, I never heard of this one either

The corncrake is the most amazing bird! With their habitats shrinking in the western part of Ireland, farmers are being paid "compensation" to postpone their mowing times so that these ground-nesting birds can rear their young. Farmers have also been encouraged to adopt a different mowing pattern, working from the inside outwards - thus parents and chicks can flee to field edges and are not trapped in the centre as mowing proceeds.

If you looked at a corncrake, you would not be able to believe that these little critters, with their tiny pin-wheel wings, could possibly migrate from Northern Africa to their breeding grounds in Ireland and the British Isles. Traditional meadow-lands are fast disappearing, so corncrakes have been shoved out onto the margins of Britain and Ireland, and to offshore islands.

I have had the privilege of seeing and hearing corncrakes on the River Shannon, as well as on the island, Inishboffin (north of Galway), where they are holding their own. To attract them for ringing (banding) and attaching transmitters, registered ringers are permitted to use sound lures on tape, as well as "bones" - two sheep bones which, when rubbed together, imitate their dry and rasping "crex-crex"... the origin of their scientific name, Cres crex. It is the males which hold the territories and which make this call.

(For anyone who would like to book some truly amazing natural history entertainment, I have been known to do a pretty passable corncrake imitation myself... Timing and conditions, however, must be perfect...)

I will try to find a website which provides better info for those who are interested. I think the best comparison might be to a very little bittern... at least in appearance.

Slainte!
Bobbie

I should have mentioned that BirdWatch Ireland, Ireland's largest bird conservation group, has been involved in the Corncrake Conservation Project for many years. Here's the link.

http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Ourwork/SurveysProjects/Corncrakes/tabid/192/Default.aspx

Slainte!

And welcome to any of you who check this Irish website and who learn more about Ireland's birds and the work of BirdWatch Ireland in bird conservation. (They are affiliated with BirdLife International.)

Bobbie

More about the wonderful Corncrake here...

http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/Default.aspx?tabid=311

Donna, I am pleased you are enjoying the BirdWatch Ireland website... I hope others will log on to see what kinds of birds we have here. Check out "our" Robin, for example!

Their home page is:

http://www.birdwatchireland.ie/

And you singled out the Dunnock - or Hedge Sparrow. I must tell you - these little lads and lassies have a verrrrry sensational sex life! Still waters and all that - haha!

Slainte!
Bobbie