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James Crombie via Inpho.

First common crane chicks born in Ireland in 300 years feared to have died

It’s hoped that crane chicks will be successfully bred in future years.

COMMON CRANES THAT set up home on a rewetted peatland owned by Bord na Móna earlier this year successfully hatched two baby chicks in May, the semi-state company said – but the chicks haven’t been seen recently and are feared to have died.

This marks the first recorded birth of crane chicks in Ireland in over 300 years, and despite fears that the crane chicks have not survived, it’s hoped future breeding attempts will be successful.  

Common cranes usually take several years to successfully fledge chicks; two previous breeding attempts in 2019 and 2020 were ultimately unsuccessful, so there was much rejoicing when the chicks hatched.

A statement from Bord na Móna said today that one chick disappeared shortly after first being seen, which is not unusual in cranes.

The second chick has not been seen since late June, suggesting it may have gone missing. Bord na Móna ecologists believe there is still a chance that it may have survived and fledged, as they are “elusive by nature” – though it is thought more likely that a predator such as a fox may have carried off the young bird, or it died for some other reason.

Mark McCorry, lead ecologist at Bord na Móna said: “We are absolutely delighted that the cranes hatched two young this year. Unfortunately, on this occasion it looks like nature took its course and the young may not have survived.

“Still it shows that we are creating the right conditions in our rewetted peatlands for these magnificent creatures to thrive. This is the third year that the cranes have nested here and the first time they have produced chicks, so there is every chance they will return next year with hopefully a more successful outcome.”

McCorry says there may be more than one pair of cranes on the rewetted peatlands.   

“We’re getting reports of sightings in other areas which lead us to believe that there may be more than one pair of cranes on our peatlands. If that is the case, it is absolutely fantastic and shows what we can achieve when we enhance and protect our natural habitats and that Common Cranes have a real chance of re-establishing as an iconic wetland bird in Ireland”.

Though Cranes have been extinct in Ireland since the 1700s, there have been increased sightings of them in Irish skies in recent years during migration and over-wintering.

This may be due to ongoing 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.

The crane is a bird with connections to Ireland’s culture and history. They have been central to folklore tales such as Fionn Mac Cumhaill, the druids, St Colmcille, and the Book of Kells. Their name as Gaeilge, ‘corr’, can be founded in hundreds of place names, such as the Curragh in Kildare which means ‘Crane meadow’.

They 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 their ease of capture by foxes and the draining of wetlands resulted in their demise some time between 1600-1700.

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19 Comments
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    Mute Kerrie Roche
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 2:35 PM

    Sad to hear that..hope it was nature that was the cause.

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    Mute Joan Grennan
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 2:46 PM

    Fascinating story : really enjoyed it even if it wasn’t exactly happy ever after .It’s great to know that in spite of everything we have people in our little country so dedicated to wildlife .Have other people in the older age bracket noticed just how drastically the insect population has declined since they were v young .May not seem that important as insects generally can be such a nuisance but clearly it does represent a mini crisis for nature in other areas

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    Mute Mickey Amoko
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 3:46 PM

    @Joan Grennan: it’s particularly noticeable on cars after long summer evening drives. There’s not nearly as many insects squished on the cars. It’s the same here in the US.

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    Mute Peter
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 3:50 PM

    @Joan Grennan: it’s no mini crisis, with less insects comes less creatures that feed on them all the way up the chain such as fish and birds. The more of them that are lost such as pollinators the less agri foods that depend on them for pollination will take place. With that go’s some of our food source along with flowers and plants that we need in turn to produce oxygen. Everything is linked and balance is needed for it all to work and what has humanity done for its part in the process, destroyed as much of it as we possibly can for short term gain.

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 4:14 PM

    @Mickey Amoko: That’s due to increased usage of spraying on farm land.

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    Mute John Murphy
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 4:30 PM

    @Joan Grennan: I wonder has the reduced insect population affected the number of birds like swallows. I did read before that the swift population is far smaller today than it was 30 years ago.

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    Mute Fachtna Roe
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 4:42 PM

    @Joan Grennan: You’re not the only one who has noticed. One thing we can do to help is to not have a light on at night in rooms with a window open. There may not be vast quantities of insects get attracted in and trapped, but every saving contribution does matter in the longer term.

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    Mute Will
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    Aug 3rd 2021, 10:20 AM

    @Joan Grennan: This is just anecdotal evidence but since we stopped using Roundup (and all other chemical pesticides) around the garden and surrounding fields we’ve seen a huge increase in bees, butterflies and other insects. I’ve even seen dragon flies around the nearby stream which I haven’t seen in 30 years.

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    Mute Honeybee
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 4:04 PM

    I did not realise Cranes were extinct in Ireland as we have regular visits to our shed roof in Dublin by two Cranes including a young bird, they love cat food and are drawn here as we feed three cats daily, the other visitor is a large hedgehog who also shares a passion for cat food, I also see foxes and a badger around so it’s amazing there are such creatures in green belt areas, hopefully we can enjoy them for years to come before the apartment blocks appear and our little friends disappear.

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    Mute Gearoid De Nogla
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 4:56 PM

    @Honeybee: Likewise in these parts, there are cranes on the local river for a long time. This year I even saw a fledgling when out walking.

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    Mute Alan Byrne
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 5:13 PM

    @Gearoid De Nogla: you might be confusing them with the common heron. They look very similar.

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    Mute James McErlain
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 5:36 PM

    @Gearoid De Nogla: FYI, you didn’t see a Crane, what you saw was a Grey Heron.

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    Mute James McErlain
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 5:37 PM

    @Honeybee: FYI, you didn’t see a Crane, what you saw was a Grey Heron.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 11:07 PM

    @Gearoid De Nogla: Maybe they were herons?

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    Mute Flynn.
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 11:13 PM

    Having stumbled across some of the “nest cam” videos on YT, it is a wonder that any birds survive. Survival is tough and nature can be cruel.

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    Mute Gavin Tobin
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 9:08 PM

    Crane’s giving birth to live young? Wow

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    Mute Alan Byrne
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 10:42 PM

    @Gavin Tobin: Well there’s a housing shortage, unless we breed more cranes we’ll never get those apartments finished.

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    Mute Mary Paget
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    Aug 2nd 2021, 6:14 PM

    F off there’s a dozen viable from arklow Bridge they must love s.. T

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    Mute Mary Paget
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    Aug 3rd 2021, 7:47 AM

    So long fraser and niles

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