The Conservation Of The Corncrake

My grand-mother remembers the corncrake and its distinctive call which could be heard in the long grass meadows, especially in the evenings during the summer months. This sound always reminded them of summer and was associated with they hay season. It used to keep them awake at night. However the cry of the corncrake has all but disappeared from the country side. In recent years my mother has attended the environmental course in Inisboffin each summer, I also went with her as a child. On the Island, there has been a major effort to re-introduce the corncrake into the wild meadows. Farmers do not cut their hay with machinery, and there is a specific time frame for cutting hay , and there are now six nesting pairs of corncrakes on the Island. Tractors cutting the hay , have disrupted the corncrakes natural nesting habitat. While in Inisboffin i have accompanied the group at sunset, we rubbed two bones together to imitate the corncrakes rasping sound in an attempt to find it. On many occasions i have heard the corncrake and I have seen one in the long meadow while on a group walk.