The Cornish Chough

Title

The Cornish Chough

Artist

Terri Waters

Medium

Photograph

Description

It was wonderful on a walk out in May to hear the distinctive call then to see this handsome Cornish Chough on the West Penwith cliffs.
Their return is a milestone in terms of UK range recovery for this captivating crow.
Historically, the southwest of the UK, especially Cornwall, was a stronghold for choughs but since the 18th century they had been in decline due to the cattle, sheep and ponies which kept the scrub and bracken at bay being removed to inland fields and the short turf on cliffs which Choughs needed to enable them to pick at insects and dig for grubs became densely overgrown. They had disappeared altogether by the mid-20th century. The last successful recorded breeding was near Newquay in 1947.
In the late 20th Century funding helped restore traditional grazing and scrub management to the clifftops and coastal fields of the Lizard and even though the main aim was to encourage famous rare flowers and plants, which also require the same short-cropped turf, wild Choughs returned naturally to Cornwall.
A small influx of birds were recorded and three birds settled at the tip of the Lizard peninsula finding the short insect-rich grass they needed and stayed.
They have been breeding successfully in Cornwall ever since.
The Chough is included in the county's coat of arms alongside the miner and the fisherman, reflecting the bird's importance in Cornish culture. It also appears regularly in Cornish legend and it is said that King Arthur was transformed into a chough when he died, the red feet and beak representing his violent, bloody end.

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June 7th, 2019

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