Disheartening news

Two bits of less than happy news.

The first is of a Corncrake found injured at Rota (Cádiz province) on 12 October. It was taken to the recuperation centre of Jerez zoo, a very good place, but regrettably a badly broken wing had to be amputated. The bird is apparently coming on well. How sad, though, that such a scarce species is so often seen only as a result of accidents. A second bird was washed up dead on the shore at Valencia last week.
I have only seen two in my life, I saw one fly in off the sea at Spurn Point, East Yorkshire, way back in the spring in the late 1950s and another by a roadside in East Yorkshire back in the early 1970s. My father once told me of them keeping him awake at night in the spring in Dumfriesshire in the 1920s and of flushing them out of the long grass when haymaking or harvesting, which was done with a couple of Shire horses pulling the mechanical cutter! How times change.

The second is of the wreck of a bulk carrier right on Europa Point, Gibraltar, last Saturday during the vile weather when it lost an anchor. There has been the all too usual oil spill and subsequent oil slicks and cakes. The worst hit species in terms of importance looks like being the Shags which nest on the Rock. Three have been seen oiled as of a couple of days since and it has not been able feasible to catch them for rehabilitation. As the population numbers some 5-6 pairs only, the effect on this dwindling population, already under pressure, and its future looks to be bleak.