Saved from extinction? A brighter future beckons for Switzerland's rare Corncrakes - or does it?

                                                       

Corncrakes need herbaceous vegetation that provides good cover, but allows passage through  the ground, such as this nettle thicket. Photo: Lucas Lombardo, BirdLife Switzerland

 

There is some good news from Switzerland on determined efforts to ensure a future for the country's  small population of  breeding Corncrakes where the species has long suffered from the same challenges as in Britain. Birdlife Suisse (which has 72,000 members) has issued the following press release. 

It is 11 pm somewhere in the mountains of Graubünden. 

Silence.

Then then, suddenly, the characteristic crex-crex call. 

Hearing this in Switzerland has become very rare. However, it was once omnipresent: just a few decades ago, the "song" of the Corncrake was part of the balmy early summer nights on the Swiss Plateau. 

A century ago, people complained that they could not sleep because of the noise of the many Corncrakes. 

Today, in Switzerland his cries hardly resonate at all.

When BirdLife Switzerland launched it in 1996, its starting point was to save the Corncrake from extinction.

The project seems to be paying off. Last year, newly protected sites achieved 17 successful broods.

The field staff of BirdLife Switzerland spend nights searching (and listening) for singing males, certain farms have adjusted their crop-mowing dates and  cantons have provided finance for on-site protection.

"Without this partnership, the protection of Corncrake broods in Switzerland would not be possible," says Lucas Lombardo, project manager at BirdLife Switzerland.

All but gone from the country's plateau meadows, Switzerland's Corncrakes are now all but confined to sites 1000m above sea level

Graubünden has become the main refuge area, with around 50 per cent of all sightings. 

Corncrake nesting requires at least eight weeks of unmowed meadow - a period generally incompatible with current farm practices. Hence the need for protected zones.

Continues Lucas: "We are celebrating 30 years, but we are not celebrating without continuing concern.

"In Switzerland, the promotion of biodiversity occupies far too little place in agricultural policy.

"For the species to survive in the long term in the country, agricultural policy must become very much more orientated in favour of biodiversity. 

"Today, less than 15 per cent of direct payments are made for biodiversity, but  85 per cent is directed to  other areas, sometimes including payments that are harmful to biodiversity.

"If the nature and diversity of species were to be treated as what they are - our lifelines - then we could safeguard our Corncrakes much more effectively. 

"The challenge for the next few years is clear: to move from reactive nest protection actions to a proactive design of the environment.

"New technology - such as thermal imaging drones for detecting  Corncrakes -  are opening up new possibilities for research and protection. 

"But agricultural policy needs to promote and pays for large-scale environmental enhancement."                                  

Corncrakes need species-rich, late-mowed meadows, such as this flower meadow in Zuoz in the Engadine region. Photo: Enea Fadini, BirdLife Switzerland

                                                                   

The image may only be used in the context of this press release and with exact acknowledgement of the source.

Hammer price of bird paintings by Archibald Thorburn exceed expectations at today's auction in Yorkshire

                                          

This enchanting Archibald Thorburn painting of Common Terns at their nest was a star performer at an auction staged earlier today by Tennants of Leyburn in Yorkshire. It sold for £11,000 - more than three times higher than the pre-sale estimate of  £2,000-£3,00. Three other bird paintings by the same artist - Woodcock (£6,500), Jay (£5,000) and Robin (£4,000) - all also achieved substantially high prices than had been expected.
  

 

Judging by number of drumming males, Snipe seem to be flourishing at RSPB wetland reserve near Aviemore

                                            

Expansive - the huge Insh Marshes floodplain beloved of wetland birds

SNIPE seem to be faring well on the RSPB's expansive Insh Marshes reserve near Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands.

According to the society's recently published reserves report for 2025,  a record 128 drumming males were recorded.

Sadly, the Spotted Crake seems to be a breeding species here no longer.

None was recorded at Insh Marshes - nor at any of its other 200-plus reserves apart from Ynys-hir, in Powys, North Wales, which had four.

Other wetland bird absentees from RSPB sites in 2025 included  Little Bittern and Baillon's Crake.

                                            

Image of drumming Snipe on 1937 cigarette card 

         

Harmony - two Snipe feeding together

                         

Chris Packham: I'm often confronted by things which make me sad - but they never rob me of hope

 

Chris Packham: "I constantly change the way I think" (photo: BBC)

You can't keep celebrity naturalist Chris Packham off the TV. He returns on Monday July 13  (9pm) with a new five-part BBC-2 series, Evolution. The second of  the 60-minute episodes will focus on how birds - for instance, the Ostrich - have evolved from prehistoric creatures. Here, he talks about the show.

Introduce us to this news series.

It is the exploration of  a concept which to many people is quite impenetrable. They believe that it happens very slowly over vast periods of time, and they may even think that it's stopped. But evolution is a dynamic process. There's a pattern. There's a mechanism, but also it involves chance. And automatically through evolution we've come up with this diverse, beautiful, fascinating collection of life as we have it at the moment.

What is the purpose of  evolution?

It  is about the need for all life to try and avoid competition, to find its own way of doing things so that it can maximise its potential. Over a period of time - and that could be five minutes, it could be a year, it could be a million years - if resources change, then life has to change to be able to take advantage of those resources.  Nature has an inbuilt programme which allow species to change. Some will fail and become extinct. Others will then take advantage of the gap that they've left.

Did making the series change the way you see or think about the natural world?

I constantly change, and I constantly change the way I think about the natural world, because I care about it. And often I'm confronted by things which make me sad. But they never rob me of hope.

Meanwhile, writing for The Sun, celebrity farmer, broadcaster and columnist Jeremy Clarkson has this to say in today's edition:

                                         

Mixed picture on breeding fortunes of Ring Ouzels at RSPB reserves in England and Scotland

                                               

This trio of Ring Ouzels were spotted in a field in Lincolnshire - a stop-off county on their migration from northern Africa to Britain's moorlands

A NOTE of disappointment has been sounded by the RSPB  on the breeding fortunes in England  of  Ring Ouzels.

The society is disappointed that at two of its reserves in the Lake District -  Geltsdale and Haweswater - only 11 birds were recorded  in the 2025 breeding season.

This is lower than in previous years when there have sometimes been 20-plus.

On the plus side, numbers  appear to be holding up at its Dove Stone reserve in the Peak District, not far from Manchester, where eight singing males were recorded last summer.

There is also good  news from its Abernethy reserve in the Scottish Highlands, with 15 singing males recorded last summer. This compares with six in the previous survey in 2021.

Ring Ouzels migrate here from wintering grounds - shared with Dotterels - in  the Atlas mountains in North Africa.

                                                   

Dove Stone is  owned by the United Utilities water company but managed by the RSPB 

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RSPB scientist warns: 'Dotterels are disappearing almost before our very eyes'

                                                             

Although it occurs on migration in  England and Wales, breeding is restricted to high ground in Scotland 

IT is now looking increasingly certain that the Dotterel will soon be lost as a breeding species in Britain.

When a survey of 217 potential site was carried out in spring and summer last year, only 22 contained breeding birds.

It  may be that there were nesting birds elsewhere, but researchers reckon that, at best, the breeding population of Britain is now no more than  just 112 pairs.

This compares with 981 pairs when a similar project was carried out in 1989.

But the decline is believed to date back at least to the 1950s.

The species is migratory and spends winter in the Atlas mountains of North Africa.

It is many years since  breeding Dotterels have been detected in England, Wales or southern Scotland. The surviving  population is now restricted to the eastern and northern Highlands of Scotland. 

A gloomy note is sounded by one of the researchers, Dr Leah Kelly of the  RSPB: "We are seeing Dotterels disappear almost before our very eyes. 

"The fact they need mountain tops to breed has made them particularly susceptible to habitat loss as climate change alters their montane environment.

"Importantly, Dotterels' preferred food, cranefly larvae, also appear to have undergone declines in UK montane sites."

Although prospects look bleak, the RSPB suggests  grazing management to keep habitat in good condition and reducing disturbance by hillwalkers and dogs, may provide some help.

Photos: RSPB

                                       

Mountain range in the Cairngorms - habitat favoured (until climate change) by the Dotterel

Publicity poster for Hitchcock's famous 'ornithological' movie fails to take flight at auction

                                                       

On the scarce occasions when birds are depicted in film poster imagery, they are sometimes cast  in an unfavourable light as in this publicity poster for Alfred Hitchcock's famous horror movie, The Birds, which went under the hammer at an auction conducted earlier today by auction house Ewbank's. The pre-sale guide price was that it would sell for between £200 and £400, but the price achieved (including buyers fees) ended up being a slightly disappointing £195.