By Gordon Deegan
The number of breeding corncrakes recorded in this year’s state corncrake census has soared to 186 birds.
The 2021 total represents an increase of 40 (27%) on the 146 male corncrakes detected last year.
Commenting on the figures from the 2021 state corncrake census, manager of the corncrake project, Denis Strong said: “We’re absolutely thrilled. The numbers are a great morale boost for everyone involved. The hard work is paying off.”
Strong said that without the conservation work being done to maintain the corncrake population in Ireland, “we would have seen corncrake extinction in Ireland in our working lives, there is no question or doubt about that”.
The corncrake is part of our heritage
Strong said that the corncrake “is part of our heritage”.
The senior divisional manager with the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) said that the battle to maintain and increase corncrake numbers has received a major boost with the €5.9 million five-year EU Corncrake Life project.
A pilot scheme relating to the Corncrake Life project is due to commence in the next number of weeks.
Strong said that the 2020 total of 146 “was an under-estimate as it was the first year of Covid-19 and we were prohibited from going on the islands to carry out the census”.
The 186 for 2021 compares to pre-Covid-19 totals of 163 in 2019 and 151 in 2018.
Strong added that 124 (67%) of the birds are located in Special Protection Areas (SPA) for birds.
Counties for corncrakes
The NPWS manager stated that Donegal had a strong year with 120 calling males, 74 of these on the islands.
He added that the Mullet Peninsula off Co. Mayo had 40 corncrakes, compared to 44 last year, while south Mayo and Connemara had 26 down from 27 in 2020 and Co. Kerry had three.
Farmers and landowners receive payments for participating in the Corncrake Grant Scheme and a total of 133 signed up this year.
Manager of the Corncrake Life project, John Carey said that the ‘Life’ project has no specific targets for population increase, but would like to see the population increase by 20% over the five-year operational period.
He said: “That sounds ambitious, but we are working from a low base.
“Corncrakes are sub-Saharan migrants which undertake a 14,000km round trip every year, and we have little control on what happens in the over-wintering grounds in Africa or the challenges they face on their migration.
“But what we can influence is increasing the area and quality of their breeding habitat at home in Ireland.
“There is a genuine ‘grá’ for the corncrake and what it represents, so we can’t wait to roll out the pilot scheme in a few weeks and get working with the landowners and communities in Donegal, Mayo and Galway,” he concluded.