In his classic poem The Yellow Bittern, Cathal Buidhe MacElgun (in the translation by Thomas MacDonagh) remarked: "It's not for the common birds that I'd mourn,
The blackbird, the corncrake or the crane,
But for the bittern that's shy and apart
And drinks alone in the lone bog-drain."
Neither MacElgun, writing in the 18th century, nor MacDonagh, in the early years of the 20th, could have dreamed of a time when the bittern would be virtually extinct in Ireland and the corncrake, far from being common, would be found only in a few isolated and disparate pockets of land in Donegal, Mayo and the Shannon Callows. Elsewhere the bird, which nests in fields of grass, and whose chicks used to creep to the safety of hedges ahead of the harvesting scythe, has been wiped out by mechanical mowing. That it survives at all in Ireland is thanks to a voluntary scheme operated in the remaining corncrake zones by Birdwatch Ireland together with local farmers, who receive £40 an acre in return for their agreement not to mow their fields until after August 1st, when the corncrakes' second brood of chicks should be strong enough to escape from the blades of the mower. The scheme has cross-Border joint funding from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It is hoped that, as corncrake numbers rise, the birds may re-establish breeding grounds in Northern Ireland, where they were declared officially extinct in 1993.
Since the scheme was begun in 1992, participants have managed to harvest their hay without serious mishap; but this year, the farmers of the Shannon Callows have lost their hay to the heavy floods of the August holiday weekend and many will have to buy in winter feeding. As a result, they are calling for the payments to be raised; they point to the £136 an acre currently paid by the EU for set-aside land.
No doubt some will find in the farmers' troubles a justification for scorning environmental schemes of this kind as useless do-goodery. How can saving a few birds be worth any risk to a man's livelihood? What matter if the corncrake dies out? Others will say the farmers voluntarily and knowingly accepted a payment in return for taking a risk with the weather.
Both views are mistaken. The corncrake matters because its grating call - once an intrinsic and unforgettable accompaniment to summer evenings in the country - is part of our heritage; and because every species whose extinction we cause or permit, diminishes ourselves. And the farmers of the Callows have a case. These are smallholders on poor land. Their current plight deserves sympathy. They have embraced the Corncrake Grant Scheme with a willingness that goes well beyond monetary calculation. And, at a time when the poisoning of the Mulcaire river by effluents and the fouling of Killarney's lakes with fertiliser are exposing - yet again - the ugly, unacceptable side of Irish agriculture, a project in which farming and conservation work hand in hand is to be treasured.
Until the recent floods in the Callows, the Corncrake Grant Scheme had produced an impressive rise in corncrake numbers. This month's setback must not be allowed to become a reverse. It is to be hoped that the scheme continues to attract more farmers - and that the Government will acknowledge its value and its achievements by further underwriting it. Birdwatch Ireland, the participating farmers - and the corncrake - deserve no less.