AND now a good news story about a bird which is generally out standing in its own field the corncrake. It is making a come back. For the second year running corncrake numbers have increased. To date, 182 singing males have been recorded this year, and these do not include stag parties from Britain.
It represents a 4 per cent increase on first year's figures. Of the total, 105 singing males are in north Donegal, many on Tory Island. Indeed, 20 per cent of all Ireland's corncrakes are to be found on Tory and Inishbofin islands.
The remainder are found in two main areas the Shannon Callows, where 54 singing males have been recorded, and Co Mayo, where there are 21 singing males.
The latter were recorded before the Connacht football final last Sunday, when the raucous revellery of the Mayo supporters could quite easily have been mixed up with the rasp of the corncrake. Just two singing males have been confirmed for elsewhere, one in Kerry and one in Roscommon, each of which must sing alone, all alone.
The growth in corncrake numbers has been attributed to the success of efforts spearheaded by Birdwatch Ireland.
Concentrating on certain areas of the country, it has operated a grants scheme encouraging farmers to delay mowing their meadows until August, and a programme of habitat management which involves providing vegetative growth for the corncrake early and late in the season, when they are most exposed.
Corncrakes breed during the summer and by August have usually reared two broods. Farmers have also been encouraged to mow fields from the centre out, thus greatly reducing the mortality levels among chicks. And it is working.
