Rewilding and reintroductions may be the conservationist’s favourite buzzwords currently but, occasionally, birds take us by surprise and re-establish themselves here naturally. Two species did this in the 20th century. The first was the osprey, which started breeding again in Scotland in 1954 after an absence of nearly half a century. Much more surprising was the return of the crane: the pair that bred successfully in the Norfolk Broads in 1981 was the first to do so for several centuries.
The birds survived in the East Anglian fens until the time of the Tudors and must have once been considerably more widespread, for more than 250 British place names refer to them. Northern populations are migratory, so it’s probable that flocks of Scandinavian cranes once migrated through these islands en route to their wintering areas in southern Europe, with some possibly overwintering here.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der March 2021-Ausgabe von The Field.
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Rory Stewart - The former Cabinet minister and hit podcast host talks to Alec Marsh about the parlous state of British politics, land management and his deep love of the countryside
The gently spoken 51-year-old former Conservative Cabinet minister is a countryman at heart. That's clear: he even changes into a tweed waistcoat for the interview, which takes place at his London home and begins with a question about his precise career status. Having resigned from the Commons and the Conservative Party in 2019, the former diplomat and soldier has reinvented himself, first with an unconventional but promising run as an independent for the London mayoralty (abandoned because of COVID19 in 2020) and then as a media figure, co-hosting one of the country's most popular podcasts, The Rest Is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor.
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