While it’s not yet critical, the numbers of Cormcrakes on Argyll and other west coast islands has fallen this year by 7%. Numbers wll be monitored next year to see if the decline continues or has been arrested.

The success of the conservation of Corncrakes has been marked. In 1990 they were down to 450 and restricted to the Argyll Islands and the Western Isles, with some on Orkney and a few around Durness on the north west Scottish mainland. By last year numbers were up to 1200. Then this year has seen a setback.

Because the Corncrake is a bird that lives on agricultural land, crofters and farmers have been critical in the success of its conservation. Land management is necessary to protect the birds’ breeding season. They need at least 25cm (4″) of grass or similar cover between May and early August to produce the two broods a year necessary to maintain their numbers.

The RSPB say that what will help is support for crofters and farmers from the Government and from the EU to maintain the land management practices that protect the Corncrake. With more intensive farming practices, grass mowing dates to service sileage production are brought forwards, imperilling the early August production of the bird’s vital second brood.

Financial support for crofters and farmers to keep mowing dates out of the breeding season and to set aside corners of land for Corncrakes is the most effective way of ensuring their survival.

On Tiree, for example, walking along the narrow roads during the late Spring and early Summer, the beds of Flag Iris set aside at the edge of the fields on either side are full of Corncrakes, happily secure in the cover and with the males calling away.

The birds migrate from sub-sahara Africa in the Spring and have established strongholds in Argyll’s islands of Coll, Tiree, Colonsay, Oronsay, Islay and Iona.

The story of the survival of the bird in Scotland and in Argyll’s islands is the story of significant environmental responsibility by crofters and farmers.