Worst Singer in the World

That's not a field, it's a fen, and it's not an ordinary fen, it's the home of a nesting pair of corncrakes, one of Europe's most endangered birds. 

Here's a recording I was able to get a few weeks after I first posted this. 

And just down the lane from us. Since we can't drive anywhere, we have to find our Irish adventures less than 2 km from home. How lucky can we get? 

To me, a corncrake doesn't sound that much different from a duck. Forty years ago before their populations declined, corncrakes sang to each other all through the summer's nights. Now, hearing just one gives a thrill. 

Birdwatch Ireland writes: 

The kerrx-kerrx sound of the Corncrake has been compared with two cheese-graters rubbed together, producing a sound so monotonous as to qualify the bird as the world's worst singer. This lack in vocal accomplishment is more than compensated for by their dignified operatic deportment as they stand erect with head held high and beak wide open. Corncrake is a misnomer - birds rarely nest in cornfields. Favourite sites are in long grass and amongst tall weeds and damp places.

The birds spend the winter in southeast Africa and arrive in Ireland in March and April. This part of Donegal is a corncrake sanctuary, so farmers are paid not to farm and thereby preserve the nesting areas. As this fen can't be farmed, and any building would just be another obnoxious holiday home, the corncrakes aren't the only winners. 

A corncrake chorus on Boffin Island just before dawn
(July 2012)

An RTE program featuring corncrakes on Tory Island.