It’s not often you get to witness wildlife history in the making, but that’s exactly what happened to RSPB press officer and photographer Grahame Madge this week. Here’s his personal account of a once in a lifetime encounter with a very special bird…
Birds are in decline and their populations are tumbling across the UK. While that statement is true for many familiar species from the cuckoo to the house sparrow, news this week from Wiltshire shows it is not all bad news. In fact, let’s be honest, there is some wonderful news!
For the first time since 1832 great bustards - the world's heaviest flying bird - have hatched chicks in the UK.
Since 2004, the Great Bustard Group has been working for this moment to reintroduce one of Europe’s most charismatic birds. After years of heartache and near financial ruin, the project has recorded its greatest success, with not one, but three chicks.
As I watched a female meandering across the grass sea of Salisbury Plain with two of her chicks I was struck by the fact that this was a scene from Britain’s past. In fact so few of us have been lucky enough to clap eyes on them that the number of living people who have seen a wild great bustard chick in Britain is probably fewer than the number of MPs standing down at the next election.
Even better, I was despatched to help capture this scene for posterity. As the bird died out in Britain only seven years after the invention of photography. Clutching telescopes and tripods, I felt like a pioneer trying to capture scenes not seized before.
Through the heat of a baking hot day on the Plain, my hazy images shot through a telescope reveal the unmistakeable form of a female bustard with two chicks. I’ll concede the images have done little to advance photography, but for me, these images are a priceless reminder that wonderful things are possible.
Over the last half a century many of Britain’s birds have declined perilously. But let’s take heart that over the same period the crane, the white-tailed eagle and now the great bustard are making a comeback thanks to dedicated conservationists.
There is a long way to go before the great bustard project can be considered successful, but for the moment - the speed of a shutter - everyone passionate about restoring Britain’s countryside should pause for a moment’s reflection that the previously unthinkable has happened - another long-lost species has a delicate toehold in our isles.