Growing crisis in Scottish livestock farming threatens corncrake recovery

The Corncrake population in Scotland has risen to its highest level in almost 30 years of monitoring, with the population of the threatened species in Scotland to more than 1,270 calling males.

Whilst the species has declined seriously in most of Western Europe, figures from RSPB Scotland's 2007 survey of the birds show an overall total north of the border of 1,273 calling males, and in the core survey areas a rise from 1,122 to 1,245 this year.

The inner Hebridean and Argyll islands have again proved particularly attractive breeding grounds for this rare and shy bird of field margins and hay meadows. Tiree's population of calling males has made a huge leap of almost a quarter, from 316 calling males in 2006 to 390 in 2007 - a 23.4 per cent increase. Together with Coll, Iona, Mull, Oronsay, Colonsay and Islay, this area accounts for 59 per cent of the total Scottish population. The calling male population in the Outer Hebrides was also up 22 birds compared with last year.