A Flea In The Ear - a photo on Flickriver

A Flea In The Ear

            The Chough was once abundant throughout the UK, but due to persecution and an ever changing approach to farming and land (mis)management saw it's decline.By 1910, the chough had disappeared from all southern coastal counties of the UK with the exception of Cornwall, but even here it's existence was fragile with the last known nesting attempt dated at 1947. There were a pair still patrolling the cliff tops around Newquay between1960-1967 but sadly one of the pair was found dead during March 1967. 
It's partner still flew along this stretch of coast until 1973 until it was seen no more ..................... the end of the Chough in Cornwall.
Twenty eight years passed with no Choughs in Cornwall until 2001 when a small number of birds were seen along the south coast between Portland and the Isles of Scilly. Three of these took up residence on the Lizard, and in 2002 two of the three successfully nested and did so each year and raised over 36 young which spilled out into the surrounding coastline along the Lizard and down to Lands End .
In 2006 a male originating from the Lizard mated and nested successfully with a wild incoming female which produced three young.
2008 saw two birds raise three chicks from a nest in the West Penwith area of Cornwall , the first time this had happened in more than a hundred and fifty years, and by 2010(?) 56 chicks had fledged from Cornish nests.

A couple of years ago whilst out on one of my weekend jaunts i came across a pair of Choughs on Cornwall's north coast and always thought there was a possibility these could nest, but seldom did i see them so they were obviously covering more ground than what i was covering .
Earlier this year whilst out on another stretch of the north coast i came across this pair again, and this time it turned out they were in the process of nesting. 
I became involved with a a team of volunteers that oversee the safety of not just the choughs but also the nesting sites to ensure they remain undisturbed. From the beginning of April every Saturday and Sunday morning were spent monitoring the birds and their nest site, unfortunately the first attempt was unsuccessful, apparently predated by Ravens. The pair successfully mated again and on the 24th June i was fortunate enough to get the first sight of two chicks at the entrance to their nest , the first chicks to be seen on this stretch for at least sixty five years and probably an awful lot longer..................... brilliant, all those hours and early starts at the crack of dawn were finally rewarded.
Sadly last week saw the two become one as unfortunately the presence of an ever increasing number of peregrine falcons in the area has meant a constant threat , only a of couple weeks ago i got on site only to find both adult and both chicks cornered by a young peregrine and only my arrival put the falcon to flight allowing the choughs to come out of their corner, so the threat was always there, hopefully the second youngster will do better.
All choughs in Cornwall are ringed as can be seen in the pictures with the exception of this youngster. This is the only known chough born in the county that was not ringed this was due to the complexity of the nesting site making in impossible. If anyone does happen to spot any chough in Cornwall please report the sightings to Claire Mucklow at the RSPB, keeping tracks of these birds movements and of any new incoming birds is a vital part of the programme, if you could get the colour of the two rings on the right leg that would be even better!


For obvious reasons the location of the birds and the nest site will remain undisclosed!

Thanks for looking, have a nice weekend.
   

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / New Mills (show map)

Taken on: September 7, 2012

Tags:

Chough

Cornwall

Red

Black

Green

Itch

Scratch

Rings

Nikon D7000 « less

Sets appears in: • Choughs

Groups appears in: • Birds and Wildlife Only!!! • The Nature's Best Wildlife Group.

Stats: 914 views / 13 comments

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: