The precious wetlands on the Ouse Washes at Welney have been restored by the Wildfowl and Wetlands TrustBillie Rate had no idea what a corncrake was — “I’d never heard of them” — and even less experience in conservation. “I’m used to handling chickens on our farm, or shooing out a swallow if it flies inside but certainly nothing like this,” she saidSponsoredYet, last summer, she found herself caring for 100 “cheeky” corncrake chicks in Norfolk. Considering just 870 calling males were recorded last year across the whole of the UK, most of them clinging on by a tailfeather at the very edges of the Outer Hebrides, the future of the species sat, quite literally, in her hands. Rate, 34, Debbie Parsons, 56, Emma Brand, 37, and Rosie Siverns, 23, usually work in the shop and café of the Welney Wetlands

Source: The Times December 03, 2021 10:53 UTC