00:00 So, Anne, could you tell me a little bit about the Giving Concrete a Home project, which
00:16 has been ongoing for the last number of years, and what it entails and how people can get
00:22 involved?
00:26 The Giving Concrete a Home project is one of the longest-running projects led by RSPB
00:33 Northern Ireland.
00:34 It's a project that aims to restore habitat for concrete on Rushline Island.
00:40 We do this by bringing nettle rhizome that we dig with the help of volunteers on the
00:45 mainland, and we wash them to avoid bringing unnecessary seeds and invertebrates.
00:54 We bag them and we bring them on Rushline Island to be replanted.
00:58 So this project aims to bring back concrete on Rushline Island.
01:03 How long has it been going and has it been growing in popularity since it was established?
01:15 The project was first set up, I think, over 15 years ago.
01:18 So this is, like I say, one of the longest projects run by RSPB Northern Ireland.
01:25 It has been very successful over the years because we went from zero birds to now having
01:32 regularly four or five calling males every year since 2014.
01:37 So this has been a very successful project.
01:40 My main area of work involves working with farmers on the North Coast and Rushline Island.
01:47 So I am a conservation officer, which basically means I give advice to farmers on what they
01:53 can do on the land for helping farmland birds, so especially the concrete and species like
01:59 chaff, lapwing or snipe.
02:02 I also give them advice on the kind of funding they can get through the environmental farming
02:08 scheme.
02:09 So I'm the facilitator of an EFS group called the Causeway Coast Farmland Bird Initiative,
02:16 which is funded by DERA.
02:18 This group allows me to advise farmers on the type of funding they can get, the best
02:25 options they can apply for their farm according to the type of farming they do, the type of
02:30 habitat they have.
02:32 We can always see if there is less productive area in the farm, maybe this would be a great
02:38 place to implement some measures for biodiversity on the farm.
02:44 So the corncrete, it's a bird that evokes many nostalgic memories for the older generation,
02:51 but less for the younger generation.
02:53 Indeed, many young people will never have heard the call of a corncrete before.
02:59 It is one of those breeds here in Northern Ireland and Ireland and on the islands of
03:04 Scotland as well, that it does provoke those nostalgic memories.
03:10 Yes, absolutely, this is a bird that farmers have been talking to, remember fondly, so
03:18 they remember the call of the corncrete, which can be heard like 1k around a place.
03:25 So it used to be so widespread, the corncrete, that everybody had heard the corncrete in
03:31 the past.
03:32 But now, as you say, the younger generation might not have a chance to hear one, especially
03:37 considering in Northern Ireland there is only a few birds left on Rathlin Island.
03:42 So this is exactly what we want to avoid.
03:44 We want to avoid being the generation that says we didn't do anything to help the corncrete.
03:51 And it works, you know, if we manage the habitat for corncrete with the support of farmers
03:57 and local communities, we can make a change.
04:01 Can you give me some background on the corncrete, its characteristics and what sort of a bird
04:08 it is?
04:12 The corncrete is a small bird, just a bit bigger than the blackbird really.
04:17 So it is from the rail family, so closely related to mohairns and coots, but they live
04:25 on dry land.
04:26 So the main characteristic you want to know is that it's very secretive.
04:30 You can't see it very well because they're always hiding amongst nettles or tall vegetation.
04:36 But you can hear them.
04:37 They have this very distinctive cracks, cracks call that you can hear like a long distance
04:43 away.
04:45 It's also a bird that migrates every year.
04:47 So you will find them again in our land from mid-April and they spend the winter in Africa.
04:55 So our birds spend the winter in Western Africa.
04:59 They also feed on insects and seeds they can find in meadows.
05:05 The female will usually breed twice during the breeding season.
05:11 They need to fledge a large number of chicks to be successful for the next year and increase
05:17 the productivity because they only live two to three years old.
05:21 So that doesn't give them much time to increase productivity.
05:27 So having the best habitats for corn crake is critical to give the chicks a chance to
05:36 fledge.
05:37 Can you tell me what sort of habitat the corn crake prefers to live in and why that's the
05:45 sort of habitat that they prefer?
05:49 So the corn crake needs tall vegetation at least 20 centimetres high along the breeding
05:55 season because they're very secretive.
05:58 They don't want to be seen.
05:59 So they need this early cover made of different plants, early growing plants including nettles,
06:07 very important plant for corn crake.
06:09 We also use flaggeris or umbelifer species like hogweeds and co.
06:15 So this early cover are usually built around field margins but the quality of the field
06:23 itself is very important.
06:24 It needs to have an open structure so that the birds can move freely among the fields.
06:31 So we need this early cover because when the birds arrive mid-April time the fields and
06:38 the grass and the flowers in the meadow will be very short.
06:42 So having a margin made of early growing plants like nettles is necessary for them to hide
06:49 from predators because they're going to use this early cover to feed the young and to
06:54 nest as well.
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