PUBLISHED: 17:07 13 July 2018 | UPDATED: 17:07 13 July 2018
After an absence of 80 years, corncrakes are being returned to the Norfolk countryside – and farmers are playing a crucial role in the breeding project which aims to spark this secretive bird’s resurgence. CHRIS HILL reports.
Amid the “hoot” of the tawny owl and the shrill “peewit” of the lapwing, a strange rasping call can be heard across Norfolk meadows during these long summer nights.
And every time this unlikely song rings out, it signals a success for a breeding project aiming to bring an endangered farmland bird back to its traditional East Anglian habitat.
Corncrakes were once widespread throughout the UK, but their numbers declined catastrophically during the 20th century due to the mechanised and earlier mowing of grass crops – destroying the tall vegetation which is the bird’s spring nesting habitat.
Conservationists say the species has been extinct in East Anglia for more than 80 years.
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