Well 'choughed'

Tuesday 14 July 2015

Conservationists are celebrating after a new arrival hatched at Ronez Quarry - the first red-billed chough to be bred in the wild for a hundred years.

Dusty as he's been named by staff at the Quarry arrived in late May after what's been a very rocky road for the species - it became extinct in the Channel Islands a century ago.

But Conservation Group Birds on the Edge have been working for the last few years on a project to return the sociable birds to the wild.

In 2010 they borrowed two breeding pairs from Paradise Park in Cornwall to start a captive-breeding programme at Durrell.

In 2013 they released seven birds onto the Island's north coast and 13 more have since joined the wild flock at Sorel. After only a year in the wild, there are now three nesting pairs.

Durrell’s Chough re-introduction field manager Liz Corry said: “It’s not unusual for choughs to nest in quarries or down mineshafts in the wild, but none of us expected them to nest in such an active quarry.

“Although busy, and noisy, few of the choughs natural predators were likely to worry them in there. We are very grateful to Ronez for helping ensure the birds safety and for their support throughout the project.”

Ronez Managing Director Mike Osborne said: "Operations Manager Kirsten Du Heaume and her production team have been really engaged with the chough programme over the last two years, keeping an eye out for the welfare of the birds which have become very comfortable in the quarry.

“We had built boxes around the site to encourage the birds to nest, so the location that Dusty's parents chose on a steel beam inside our rock crushing house did seem somewhat strange. I suppose this demonstrates the unpredictability of nature.  

“Ronez will be doing everything we can in the years ahead to support Durrell and the Birds On The Edge programme to encourage more successes like this."

Young birds which have been captively-bred at Durrell and Paradise Park are being released at Sorel later this summer to join Dusty and the other wild choughs.

Glyn Young of Durrell’s Glyn Young said: “It is amazing for birds like these, raised in captivity, to breed in the wild so quickly and this is a positive step for the restoration of Jersey’s coastland birds.”

Pic credit: Liz Corry