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Nine curlew reintrouduced into the wild as part of conservation project
Nine curlew reintrouduced into the wild as part of conservation project

RTÉ News​

time2 days ago

  • General
  • RTÉ News​

Nine curlew reintrouduced into the wild as part of conservation project

A group of nine curlew, a bird species that has seen most of its population lost in Ireland since the 1980s, has been reintroduced to the wild on Lough Ree near Athlone as a part of a conservation project. The Breeding Waders EIP initiative involves eggs being removed from the endangered species' nests and incubated at Fota Wildlife Park, before the newly-hatched fledglings are later set free. On Sunday, the birds were released on Inchbofin on Lough Ree, with the uninhabited island offering a safe environment for the birds to thrive in. Senior Project Manager with the project Owen Murphy said that in conservation, especially with ground-nesting birds, "you can have a lot of bad days because they are very vulnerable". "They're in egg stage on the ground and they're in chick stage on the ground," he said. "So for days like today that we have nine fledged birds back into the wild, all healthy and all feeding as soon as we let them out, it's hugely important and there's great satisfaction after all the effort that's been put in." The release of the curlew on Lough Ree is the end of what is known as a headstarting project, which involves taking wild eggs and incubating them and - once they hatch - putting the birds back into the wild. Mr Murphy said headstarting "removes that period that they're really at risk, both in an egg and as a very young chick". The Irish curlew population has declined by around 98% since the 1980s, with just around 100 pairs of the species left. As a result, the Breeding Waders project manager said releases like this are "really significant". "As well as today, we have another release in another couple of weeks at Lough Corrib (Co Galway) where we'll be putting 17 birds back into the wild," Mr Murphy said, adding that such reintroductions are "hugely important". "In Ireland we've had declines of over 98% in our curlew population, so devastating declines." The curlew were brought to Inchbofin when they were between 22 and 27 days old, and were in a pen on the island for nearly three weeks leading up to their release. This was to make sure they grew strong enough to survive in the wild and until they showed signs of being able to fly - meaning they would be more likely to be able to escape from predators. Prior to that, they were looked after at Fota Wildlife Park, when they were still in their eggs. Jessica Hodnett from Fota Wildlife Park, who has known the nine released curlew since then, said their reintroduction could not have gone better. "They looked healthy, happy, strong and they came out nice and slowly and acclimatised themselves and we even got some flying," she said. On the role Fota plays in the project, Ms Hodnett said: "We look after all the egg incubation, so we collect eggs from the conservationists, we assess the health of the egg and try and maximise the hatchability. "We look at all aspects of the incubation and the early-stage rearing, so the first 30 days of the chicks' lives when they're at their most vulnerable we rear them and give them a head start." 'Each one is essentially a golden egg' Ms Hodnett said watching the curlew leave their pen on the island was "quite emotional". "We've looked after the birds since day dot - since they were eggs and each one is essentially a golden egg. So to get them from egg stage all the way through to flying and into the wild, it's amazing." Green Party Senator Malcolm Noonan was minister for nature last year when the five-year €25 million Breeding Waders project was launched. On Sunday, he was on Lough Ree to see its first result. The senator said that "nature restoration and projects like this show how important it is to front-load investment in conservation". "It's about collaboration with local land owners, and as we see here with Fota Wildlife Park," the senator said. "Until we get to a point where we can scale up nature restoration and reconnect our habitats and deal with habitat fragmentation, I think projects like this are going to be required into the future," Senator Noonan added. Measuring success The release of the birds on Lough Ree comes a year into the five-year, €25 million initiative, and adds to the around 100 pairs of curlew living wild in Ireland. However, when it is finished, Mr Murphy said measuring the project's impact "can be hard and it can take some time. "The population is still decreasing, so we're hoping towards the end of the project that a national survey will show that that decline has stopped," Mr Murphy said. "These projects are short-term. If you think they're declining for 40 years, it would take 40-50 years of effort to try and get them back up again, so we're the first step in what will hopefully be recovery over the next 25 to 50 years for the curlew."

Warning over increased risk to endangered birds' nests from dogs
Warning over increased risk to endangered birds' nests from dogs

RTÉ News​

time15-06-2025

  • General
  • RTÉ News​

Warning over increased risk to endangered birds' nests from dogs

Conservationists are warning of an increase in recent weeks of the nesting sites of endangered breeding waders, such as the curlew, being destroyed by dogs. Breeding waders are among the most endangered bird species in Ireland. The most famous of them - the curlew - has seen 98% of its population lost since the 1980s. One of the few remaining habitats for the curlew, and other endangered ground-nesters like the oystercatcher, is around Lough Ree near Athlone. The habitat there is looked after by the Breeding Waders EIP project, which aims to secure existing breeding wader populations and support population recovery. Conservationists working in the area say there has been a rise in incidents of loose dogs chasing the endangered birds and disturbing their nests. Senior Project Manager Owen Murphy said the team has increasingly seen "human activity causing significant disturbance to these birds. "Disturbance can come in in a variety of different formats, from walking dogs off leads to camping in the wrong place, to driving across sensitive areas. "These birds feel unsettled, they don't feel safe, they see humans and dogs as predators, and so therefore they're inclined to abandon areas that have too much human activity," he added. The issue is a nationwide one, despite conservation efforts, including under the ACRES scheme. Part of the Government's €1.5 billion ACRES climate scheme funds 20,000 farmers to help provide habitats for endangered waders. However, Fergal Monaghan, Programme Director with ACRES, said the benefits of that work "can be put at risk by carelessness, particularly by dogs running off the leash". "We would ask people to keep their dogs on a leash, or ideally, don't bring dogs to sensitive areas - wetlands, bogs and heat and coastal areas - particularly between the months of March and August," he added. Mr Monaghan said "it's not being done maliciously, but a dog doesn't even have to catch a bird to do real damage, and it can drive birds away. "Earlier this year, we've lost the breeding population of lapwing at Bunduff lake in Sligo. Unfortunately, that problem is mirrored up and down the country, and we just ask people to be careful during the nesting season in these high-value areas, to keep dogs on a leash or ideally leave them at home." It is a criminal offence to wilfully disturb with the nesting site of any bird in the country and conservationists are asking members of the public to be mindful of the risk to these birds when in and around their habitats.

New technology to monitor for endangered corncrakes
New technology to monitor for endangered corncrakes

RTÉ News​

time06-05-2025

  • Science
  • RTÉ News​

New technology to monitor for endangered corncrakes

New technology has been set up in an area around the Shannon Callows near Athlone, Co Westmeath to monitor for the presence of critically endangered corncrake birds. The National Parks and Wildlife Service is hoping that this new recording technology will provide more comprehensive information about whether the corncrake has returned to the area. "What we're using is bio-acoustic recorders and they're placed in strategic locations along the Shannon Callows," explains Therese Kelly, District Conservation Officer with the National Parks and Wildlife Service. "They are capturing birdsong in the middle of the night, from about 10 o'clock until about maybe five o'clock in the morning," she said. "What we're interested in hearing, if they're there, are the songs and sounds of corncrakes, which were once common on the callows." The Shannon Callows are stretches of flat grassland along the shores of the River Shannon between Athlone and Portumna, which flood in winter but dry out in summer. The area was once a significant breeding ground for corncrakes in Ireland, but their numbers have declined in recent years and with early summer flooding becoming more prevalent, it has impacted the corncrake's breeding success. It is hoped that the new technology can shed more light on the status of the corncrake in the region compared to traditional surveying methods, which have been used in the past. "This new technology is recording one minute on, one minute off for the whole night long in a singular location," says Ms Kelly. "If we had people out doing this survey, we would have to spread that human resource across a large area, which would mean that you could only listen at a location for a much shorter length of time. "There is a chance, because of that, that you might actually miss a bird. "It might detect that you're there and stay quiet for the time that you're there, so the bio-acoustic recorder, it's a much less invasive method of surveying for birds." Detecting the sound of the corncrake In the coming weeks, the data from the sound recorder will be downloaded and experts working with specially designed software should be able to detect the sound of the corncrake, if it is present. The monitoring will continue in the Shannon Callows well into the summer and experts will continue to download the data that it records. The Breeding Waders EIP, an initiative that aims to protect and restore Ireland's most vulnerable breeding wader population, is involved in the corncrakes project. "We're lending our support to this project by analysing the sound files that come from these audio recordings to determine if there's corncrakes in the area," said Karen Nugent, Communications Manager for the Breeding Waders EIP project. "It will take a lot of analytics, and a lot of work as there's hours of recordings, but the more you do it, the quicker you get at it." Corncrakes - shy and elusive Corncrakes are extremely shy and elusive birds that fly more than 6,000km to Ireland from the Congo region of West Africa to mate and have their young. Their distinctive call was once a common feature in the Irish countryside. "This was the heartland of corncrake back in the 1990s and their loss is very much lamented by the farmers and landowners along the callows." They are small - about the size of a blackbird - and seek cover among plants such as nettles, cow parsley, common hogweed, meadow flowers and some traditionally grown crops like kale. They begin their breeding cycles while in Ireland and if all goes well, a female corncrake will quietly raise two clutches, with about ten chicks each in each brood, and be gone back to Africa by late August or early September. Usually, the male is gone even sooner than that. While they are in Ireland, male corncrakes make a lot of noise. They have a unique disyllabic crex-crex call to attract a female and to warn other male corncrakes off .their patch. The male can start at 11pm and "call out" as many as 10,000-15,000 times in a night. Record number detected in 2024 The corncrake is listed on the Red List of Conservation Concern having significantly decreased in both number and range in Ireland and other European countries. Last year, the highest number of corncrake territories were recorded in Ireland for 25 years, according to data from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). There were 233 corncrake territories recorded in 2024, which represented a 45% increase since 2018. Most of the territories recorded in the NPWS survey were in the breeding areas of Galway, Mayo and Donegal; areas that are part of the Corncrake LIFE conservation project.. "The sound of the corncrake is part of the landscape here." "So at a national level corncrake numbers have steadily increased over the past five years but the number is still quite low," explained Dr John Carey, who manages the Corncrake LIFE project. "What we're hoping now is that, because we have this population increase, birds which are returning to the west and northwest coast may pass over the Shannon Callows, and then, by extension, some of them might actually stay here," he said. Ten years since corncrake last detected in area It has been ten years since a corncrake was detected in the Shannon Callows area and Mr Carey said the loss is keenly felt. "This was the heartland of corncrake back in the 1990s and their loss is very much lamented by the farmers and landowners along the callows," he added. "What we're doing in this project is trying to remotely detect those birds and determine the status of the birds here in the callows, because this was an area where the corncrake was quite prevalent," Mr Carey added. "Our hope now is by monitoring the birds more comprehensively, we can determine their status and then perhaps look at the feasibility of re-introducing them or translocating them back here." "Those of us who live along the Shannon, as I do, it's something that's missing from our lives. The sound of the corncrake is part of the landscape here," he said. "It's 10 years since we've had the birds on the callows and along the Shannon system, as so many people would love to hear the bird back and with the help of God, we'll be able to do it."

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