Corncrakes are small migratory birds that are critically endangered. The good news is there have been multiple
spottings of the brids in Ireland! The bad news is farmers could scare them away or even accidentally kill them.
Will you sign the petition asking farmers on Rathlin Island to make the small changes necessary to give Corncrakes a fighting chance?Corncrakes love to post up in tall vegetation like nettles, cow parsley and irises because there they can have babies and stay protected from predators. This is just where breeding birds have been spotted this year!
The issue is that farmers have been harvesting these fields earlier each year, thus taking out the only space where these birds can breed. They also tend to start cutting the fields from the outside, which doesn't give the birds a chance to escape. So we are asking that farmers cut these girls later, after the birds have had their broods and also begin cutting from inside of the fields so if the birds are there, they have a chance to escape.
Will you sign on to ask farmers in Northern Ireland to make these changes?The Corncrakes breed in Ireland and then migrate to Africa in the winter and they are also scared by humans. So it's critical that the spotted birds are given plenty of space by onlookers and farmers alike. This group has had two broods, which is a big deal when it comes to endangered species!
