Flying Giants back from the Brink

The midlands of Ireland are full of bogs. In fact, they are one of Ireland’s most characteristic features and cover 1/6 of the island!

We don’t really think much of bogs. After all they are just … bogs. Swamp land nothingness.

But bogs are so important to Irish culture, environment and landscape!

There are two types; blanket bogs and raised bogs and were formed at the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago! Back then, most of central Ireland was covered by shallow lakes left behind from melting ice, but over the centuries poor drainage and layer upon layer of dead plants build up to create peat.

Bogs are home to many rare plants and animals but these bogs, or peatlands, have been exploited by humans for thousands of years. This is due to agriculture but mainly bogs have been drained and dried out to ‘cut turf’ to use for fuel. This disturbance caused a rapid decline in many wetland species in Ireland but in the early 1990s, certain bogs were listed under the 1992 European Habitats Directive which required the Irish State to protect various species and natural habitats.

The good news…it’s working! This week (first week in August 2021 at time of writing), it has been reported that common crane chicks have been hatched on a rewetted peatland.

So why is this a big deal?

Well common cranes, aren’t actually very common in Ireland! They have been extinct in Ireland since the 1700s!!
However, there have been increased sightings of them in Irish skies in recent years during migration and over-wintering. This may be due to conservation works in the UK that has seen numbers of the birds there rise from zero in the 1970s to over 200 today – as well as increases in its European population.

Credit: The Wildlife Trusts

Cranes are a huge part of Ireland and are often found in folklore as well as in hundreds of names such as such as the Curragh in Kildare which means “crane meadow” (who knew!). They are huge birds - the tallest in the UK with a wingspan length of 220-245cm.
Cranes were even kept as pets, and records show they were the third-most popular pet in medieval times. Unfortunately, they were also a popular food item for people at the time and were easily captured by foxes. Finally, the draining of wetlands resulted in their end sometime between 1600 and 1700.

It’s no surprise then that the hatching location of the two chicks was in a top-secret location somewhere in the midlands of Ireland and monitoring extensively by ecologists. The reason being that it would be too risky for anyone to go and disturb them! These were the very first recorded birth of crane chicks in Ireland in over 300 years.

The sad news is that it is thought that the chicks may have been eaten by a fox.

However the birds are elusive by nature, and experts believe there is still a chance the chick may have survived and fledged (this is when a bird’s wing muscles are developed enough so they can fly away!). No matter the outcome, it shows that the revival of species is possible with nature conservations such as the bog lands in Ireland.

The story of the crane chicks here in Ireland offers us one very important thing.

Hope.

And hope, along with stories like this along the way, is absolutely everything in our world that is facing such an extreme biodiversity crisis.

Read more about the ongoing efforts to protect and conserve the biodiversity of Ireland’s bogs here. If you want to visit a bog and do some nature watching, the Bog of Allen Nature Centre is well worth a visit!