RSPB NATURE RESERVE 1994

For the first time in 100 years the numbers of corncrakes in Britain did not decline. Numbers even increased, but only by about a dozen.

Their plight remains desperate as there are still only 450 in the UK and other populations in Europe are declining rapidly: corncrakes are still globally endangered with extinction.

However the small increase in this country gives a small glimmer of hope. 1991 was the first year that concentrated efforts were put into corncrake conservation. The RSPB bought this reserve on Coll and also joined with the Scottish Crofters Union and Scottish Natural Heritage to start the Corncrake Initiative Grant Scheme.

Fieldworkers promoted these grants, raising awareness about the problems corncrakes were facing to farmers and crofters throughout the islands. Corncrake conservation was also written into the Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) prescriptions for the Inner and Outer Hebrides by the Department of Agriculture.

Since 1991 the number of corncrakes on the reserve has risen steadily from 6 to 18 pairs, with the island total rising to 25.

This shows how corncrakes will increase if the right habitat (late cut hay/silage with some cover for early in the season) is present. The other wider countryside measures, (grants for late cut hay/silage), reduced mortality and improved breeding success. So, bingo, in three years the decline is stopped and there is even a slight increase in numbers.

To continue increasing this very small population will take even more positive steps, and the ESA provides that opportunity. The highest level of grant from the Department of Agriculture (SOAFD) for land in the ESA is for corncrakes, with up to £180 per hectare per year to mow hay/silage after August 1st, and to provide small field corners for early season cover. These positive conservation techniques have been developed by the RSPB on the Coll reserve using sound science combined with sensible land management, and are now being 'exported' to other areas.

Glen Tyler, an RSPB research biologist, arrived on Coll in April for 6 months of intensive corncrake radio tracking and habitat preference studies.

Glen's three year definitive study proved the importance of early cover in nettles, iris, cow parsley or reeds before the grass is tall enough to hide the birds; how the first nest in May is in these early cover areas; how chicks were led into meadows that weren't too heavily fertilized and dense: how the females laid a second clutch which did not hatch until early August; how at least one female had a third nest on the go until late August - showing how late cutting is better; how the chicks rapidly run off from tractors towards the field edges, emphasising the importance of mowing outwards from the field centre; and how the birds can return to exactly the same field having migrated to SE Africa and back.

Radio tracking has other benefits. Think of a long sunny Hebridean afternoon. Imagine the blue of the sky, the warmth, the turquoise bays, maybe with a Great Northern Diver resplendent and calling. Picture that machairy green that isn't really green but is a kaleidoscope of flowers.

Think of meadows sparkling with marsh orchids and ox eye daisies, iris patches, vibrant yellow and shimmering.

Imagine knowing a corncrake mother and her chicks are in that iris patch, yes, that one there. Creep up slowly and if you listen carefully - ignore the gentle background of surf and skylarks - you'll hear the soft dove-like cooing as she gathers her chicks close. Back off softly, sit on that knoll amongst moonwort and fragrant orchid, and you may. if you're even luckier, see a waving of grass stalks as they tunnel off.

Glen went from Coll to Russia to advise on corncrake management in a new national park. There life seems pretty bleak for humans and wildlife alike. One large dairy farm he visited used to cut lots of hay for winter feed and consequently had lots of corncrakes. Now, with the economy in tatters the cows have all been eaten, no more hay is cut and woodland is invading the fields, making them unsuitable for corncrakes.

Mike McGrady, an RSPB eagle biologist from Inveraray went to Latvia. Large areas of abandoned cereal fields had corncrakes, but this is a very transient habitat.

Another warden went to Egypt where corncrakes, funneled through the Middle Fast on migration, are caught as a by-product of the ancient tradition of quail netting. The Egyptian Ornithological Society is being assisted in educating the trappers into releasing corncrakes.

Rhys Green, who helped in '93 and '94 on Coll went to Poland where an inernational conference of conservationists started to put a package of conservation measures together, realising the importance of co-operative international efforts in dealing with migratory birds.

The European Union part funded a joint British/Irish/French corncrake conservation plan in which almost £1 million is to be used over five years, grant aiding farmers to cut hay/silage after the birds have finished breeding, and to help reserve management on a network of reserves from France to Ireland to the Hebrides.



I do keep banging on about corncrakes, (I can see your eyes glazing over!), but they are the reason the RSPB is on Coll. Corncrakes have spin off benefits for many other people as well. Coll and its corncrakes have been featured on TV, radio and a dozen or more newspapers and magazines this year from 'The Times' to 'Woman and Home'. Even 'Doritos Corn Chips', the product that will revolutionise the UK's snacking habits, burst onto the market place in an imaginative PR surge on Coll. "Corn chips for Corncrakes" was the punchy slogan, grinning warden accepted packets of product for photo-opportunity and a live radio link-up was beamed through the ethers to Radio Leicester. Radio Leicester!! No wonder your snacking habits haven't been revolutionised!

The level of interest in the island and its wildlife is increasing, and will increase further after a BBC" TV documentary on farming and corncrakes on Coll is shown early in 1995.

The RSPB weekly guided walks were attended by up to thirty visitors, including an excellent number of locals, (some of them coming more than once!), and already I am getting phone calls asking "Where can I stay, what can I see?"

The Hebridean Centre at Ballyhough is now hosting study tours that involve crofting and Corncrakes. Expansion of B&B's and self-catering accomodation are all planned, so with more people coming to the island the local economy will benefit.

I wonder who is going to he the first to sell corncrake mugs, T-shirts and postcards?

The flower rich machair grasslands, only found on the Scottish and Irish West coasts, bloomed profusely when sheep were taken off in mid-summer for 2 months. Many people commented on how wonderful the bents looked, shimmering purple with bloody cranesbill and pyramidal orchids. Several new colonies of Irish Lady's Tresses, the rarest orchid in Europe were found. Coll and Barra are the best spots for this small white late flowering orchid. It is good to see an increase here as press reports suggest the Barra site is threatened with development.

The machair areas arc fairly pristine and maintaining grazing but with a summer break should be sufficient to allow the hundreds of species of flowers to thrive. Other areas of overgrazed and burnt heather moorland will take longer to recover.

Totronald hill now has a much reduced grazing pressure and already the close cropped heather is starting to regenerate. This will eventually benefit small birds like stonechat and twite, and hopefully larger predators like the hen harrier and the merlin which require deep heather to nest in.

An area out on Fasachd point is now not grazed at all, as specified by a new Dept. of Agriculture grant scheme, to allow the regeneration of scrub. Being out on the point amongst rowan and willow bushes where green hairstreak butterflies dart around the warm rocks festooned with honeysuckle, while eiders croon in the hidden sandy bay and terns angrily divebomb, an otter, returning to its holt across glistening seaweed, makes any day special.

These peaty moorland areas can often seem boring and empty but peat bogs, like machair, are very rare habitats. Blanket bog is only found in Tierra del Fuego, the Kamchatka peninsula in Siberia, some Southern Ocean islands like South Georgia and Gough, the Ruwenzori Mountains in Uganda, West Norway, Britain and Ireland. Scotland holds one seventh of all the world's resource, which is now known to act as a vast carbon dioxide sink regulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and if undamaged, helping to slow global warming - dry figures that belie the experience of tramping many miles of undulating bog before cresting a rise to a hidden dubh lochan and there, pristine and shimmering in a glassy reflected sky, are white water lilies, perfect and delicate. A redthroated diver slips under the black water and ripples kaleidoscope the clouds and flowers. Like a frog leaping into a Japanese pond, you can then understand Haiku.

Ducks and geese dominate the scene as I write this in early January. Flocks of teal, up to 200 birds fly in, tightly twisting and bunch to land on the canal lochan. Sheltering up alongside the reed bed they go "peep peep" and ignore the wigeon whistling and growling. Not all ducks quack. The purposefully blocked drains in this and several other swamps and lochans have recreated excellent conditions for ducks in winter. As the water level drops in Spring, the surrounding damp areas support remarkable concentrations of breeding waders like snipe and redshank. Over 400 pairs nest on the reserve, a very healthy population which has been in-creasing since RSPB management started, and is now grant-aided by the Dept. of Agriculture under the new Habitat Recreation Scheme.

Goose numbers are more dependent on their breeding success in Greenland and have only shown slow increases recently. Try watching the barnacle geese at dusk as they rise up from Breachacha with a clamour of small dogs yapping and stream out across Crossapol Bay into the sunset to merge into Gunna. The numbers of Greenalnd white-fronted geese are also internationally important. There are only 3 places in the rest of the world where you can see as many white-fronts as you can on Coll. Think about that.

Think about the rarest orchid in europe, the globally endangered corncrake, the amazing density of waders, and of course the beauty of it all. Here on Coll. Please don’t forget.

Charlie Self