Some years ago I read on a bird forum (I forget which) some fairly negative comments about a Great Bustard Otis tarda re-introduction scheme taking place on Salisbury Plain, an ill-defined chalk plateau covering some 300 square miles (780 km2) of Wiltshire and Hampshire in central southern England, much of which is owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Great Bustards, the world’s largest flying bird, once ranged over large areas of England but were extirpated sometime after 1832 and have been declining across their entire world range since the advent of intensive agriculture - the scheme, run by a small independent organisation, aimed to bring bustards from Russia to England to establish a self-sustaining breeding population.

At 10:00 am on the 9th of June I was met bang on time at the re-introduction site on MOD land in Wiltshire (David asked that the exact location should be withheld) and ending up spending a revealing and extremely interesting three hours in David’s company as we discussed issue after issue and I finally learnt the truth about the re-introduction scheme and the people behind it. And believe me when I say that I will never listen to rumour and uninformed gossip ever again, because what I found was a passionate (and nearly exhausted) man who has given up virtually everything he owns to bring back to Wiltshire a species he fell in love with in the 1980s and a project which is extremely well-run and has support at the highest levels of Russian conservation…

I met David at a pre-arranged meeting-place in a beautiful valley on the Plain on what was a rather grey and overcast morning. Despite the disappointing weather the valley was filled with the sounds of Sky Larks and calling Red-legged Partridges, a Common Buzzard drifted over ignoring the Rooks that harried it, and Barn Swallows, Pied Wagtails, Goldfinches, and Linnets were all actively gathering food to presumably stuff down the throats of what were probably - given it was June - quite large youngsters.

David drove me round to two portable buildings which act as GBG HQ and a well-stocked shop (fancy some locally-brewed Great Bustard Beer, Greedy Bustard chocolate, an “Angry Bustard” t-shirt, a GBG fleece, silver bustard, GBG pencil, key-ring, or car-sticker (right), or (my personal favourite) Dirty Bustard soap? These people could teach us all a lesson on merchandising I tell you…)

David was busy - as I imagine he always is as he runs the GBG since he founded it in 1997 almost single-handed bar a small core of volunteers - and asked if I’d mind watching a short DVD on the project in the shop which “would explain things better than me blathering on for hours”. How could I refuse such a self-depracatory invitation…

Actually, I have to say as a way of getting the history of the Great Bustard in the UK and of the project’s aims and working methodology across succinctly and with minimum fuss I’d recommend the DVD to anyone interested (I bought one myself I’ll have you know): it’s not only beautifully photographed by a professional cameraman it’s narrated by probably the most influential wildlife broadcaster alive today, Sir David Attenborough (quite a coup, and when I asked the Wiltshire David how he got Global Superstar David to narrate he simply said, “We asked him”. Now, that’s proactive…)

More importantly, the DVD dispels many of the myths that have bedevilled the project. Far from members of the group ’stealing’ bustards from the Russian population, they actually follow groups of tractors ploughing up the vast fields of southern Russia quite literally saving eggs before they’re crushed and turned back into the soil as bustard embryo omelette. The team in Russia is led by respected scientists who back the GBG project (and have recently been to the UK to see the re-introduction set-up for themselves), and who go to extraordinary lengths to avoid any chicks born in the field-stations from imprinting on humans (dressing up as Great Bustards and hand-feeding the chicks with mummy bustard glove-puppets [I'm having fun writing this by the way]). And as David explained later it has taken years of patient negotiations between GBG and sceptical governments on both flanks of Europe to get the necessary export/import papers and CITES approval.

Part of the release-site on Salisbury Plain (note red MoD warning signs!)

From the cabins (and after a very strong cup of tea - perfect! - and a bit of a grilling from David who has an understandably slightly world-weary view of birders after the grillings he’s taken from them over the years) we headed up the valley to the hides that overlook the large release ‘pen’. Protected by a fox-proof, electrified fence the ‘pen’ is more like an overgrown field with open bare areas which give the Bustards the mosaic of habitats they prefer. It seems to work very well as even older birds that are perfectly free to roam over Salisbury Plain return to the site, and it just happened to be hosting a wild male Great Bustard when I was there.

The photographs I took are not particularly good because much to David’s credit he doesn’t allow anyone to disturb the birds in any way, and though the hide is on an elevated spot ensuring a good sight-line it’s still some distance away to where the birds tend to gather (encouraged by a small flock wooden ‘female’ bustards). However, we’re not talking warblers or sparrows here, but a bird the size of a small house (actually around 35 -37 inches/90-105 cm tall) and that weighs in at between 14 and 20kgs - females are much smaller (the species exhibits the largest size difference between males and females of any bird) - so even a heavily cropped shot gives some idea of what a gorgeous bird a Great Bustard is (though it may well be time I started digi-scoping)…

Wide view from the hide looking towards the release pen

The male Great Bustard Otis tarda in the photo above
(with one of the carefully-crafted models)

Not spectacular views maybe, but it’s something of a wonder that I was able to take any photos at all. This is a species that was shot out of existence in the UK, after all, that lost vast numbers of eggs to agricultural development and ‘ornithologists’ (many of whom were collectors rather than the conservationists or birders we associate the term with these days), and last bred in the country when William IV (Victoria’s father) was on the throne.

Call me gullible if you like, but I’m normally quite a sceptical person and after we’d chatted for a while and David had answered a torrent of questions I was really finding it difficult to understand why it’s supposedly wrong to import Great Bustards back to what was once part of their natural range, especially if the alternative is letting them die before they even hatch in their ‘homeland’?

It’s a species that belongs here as much as I do. It’s on the Wiltshire coat-of-arms, the newly-designed Wiltshire flag (image left) and is an iconic bird in this part of the world), and despite some concerns about genetic purity (which I don’t take lightly, but Russian birds do seem to be very close indeed to western populations in terms of both behaviour and genetic relationships) and the arguments that must of course be (and were) considered before any extirpated bird is re-introduced into a habitat it was once found in, I personally can see no good reason why the project has received the disdain it has - especially from birders (like me, of course) who didn’t bother to go and look at the work that’s actually going on for themselves. A genuine lack of interest in one the world’s most spectacular birds, perhaps, or is the “I can’t tick it so I don’t care about it” factor the over-riding negative here?

I suspect the latter, which is a shameful reflection on the short-sighted attitudes of some birders. Besides which all of us may perhaps soon be able to ‘tick’ Great Bustards, as there are currently four nests on the Plain (no, I don’t know where they are and if I did I wouldn’t say as no-one wants to give any clues to the dumb obsessives (I’m being very polite here) that still collect birds’ eggs), and some of the resulting chicks are now a couple of weeks old and must surely be through the most vulnerable parts of their lives. This small nucleus will undoubtedly be the ’seed’ for a larger population - there is plenty of available breeding habitat on the Plain - and there will come a time when the species will be admitted back onto the British List as a wild breeding species.

Did I see the chicks? As a matter of fact I did, and they were beautiful, but they were a long way off and David - who has spent twelve years and all his money to get to this stage - certainly wasn’t going to let me get too close: and to tell the truth if he had I’d have been disappointed. As it was there was no sense whatsoever of ’showing-off’ or blowing his own trumpet - just a light shining in his eyes that said all the effort and struggle had all been leading to this and as far as his detractors are concerned they can go shovel it (my words, not his). It was a privilege to be welcomed so warmly as it was, and treated with genuine courtesy and interest from a man who has every reason to be as wary of birders like me as a fox needs to be wary of getting too close to bustard chicks in this part of Wiltshire…

Incidentally, in the same small release pen as the male (and thus protected by the electric fence) are two pairs of Stone Curlews (there are less than 350 pairs of this charismatic bird left in the UK), I heard a calling Quail (another bird suffering declines through agricultural change and over-hunting), and a singing Corn Bunting was sat on a fence behind me (yet another species that has declined hugely in recent years - David estimates that as many as 100 Corn Buntings join other seed-eaters in the winter when a local farmer donates sacks of grain to the GBG). Additionally the bank behind the main hide is covered in Common Spotted Orchids (and there are no doubt other species if I’d been able to look for them), and there is a thriving population of Brown Hares (yet another species that underwent huge declines before conservation programmes were set up which encouraged farmers to manage their land in a way that protected hares and other wildlife).

Brown Hare Lepus europaeus

I mention all of this because I asked David what support he’d had from local conservation groups like the Wiltshire Ornithological Society or the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust given that - the bustards aside - the land he struggles so hard to protect holds such nationally-important species: the answer is none or thereabouts.

Personally I find this incredibly hard to understand. Surely habitat protection is one of their raison-d’etres? Yes, some of the Bustards have died (in fact though the survival rate is higher than in most extant breeding populations), and they do range far from the Plain in the winter (as they were expected to do) but I’m hoping someone will enlighten me in the comments fields below just what the arguments against are, because for the life of me (and I’m being very genuine here) I don’t understand why local conservationists aren’t clapping David on the back and asking to get involved. The Stone Curlews and Quails alone ought to make them interested, and wait until I tell you about the incredibly rare raptor that breeds nearby…

Oh actually, maybe that can wait until another post because there are most certainly going to be more posts. Rather than just talk about how David needs support and ask why local conservationists aren’t helping him out I’m glad to say that 10,000 Birds is joining the Great Bustard Group as a supporter and David has accepted my offer to volunteer at the site in the very near future. Believe me, if I find a flaw in the project I’ll report it, but I’m as convinced as I am about our work in Kenya on Sharpe’s Longclaw that this is a scheme I should be supporting and I hope that this post will go some way towards changing the opinions of other birders too…

For more information - particularly on the science behind the project - please visit the Great Bustard Group’s website at http://www.greatbustard.com

Visitors are welcome to the site by prior arrangement with David. There is a small charge which is used to support the project. Contact David by email at visit - AT - greatbustard.com

It is VERY important that birders do NOT go onto the site by themselves - not only will the Bustards (who are naturally very wary of people) be disturbed, but the site is owned by the Ministry of Defence, there are unexploded tank shells in the area, and the Army does not take kindly to people walking around their land…