If you are lucky enough to see a great bustard, please use our sightings form to report it to us: http://greatbustard.org/about-us/sightings

April 2012

By 26th April last year, we had two bustard nests. This year we are still waiting, although given the wet and windy weather that is no great surprise. As the month has progressed two females, Yellow 22 and Black 17, have been following the displaying males ever more closely. It seems only a matter of time before another breeding season begins. The other old female, Orange 15, has been uncharacteristically easy to find this month, albeit away from the main group of birds. We have never been able to confirm whether or not she has made a breeding attempt – hopefully this year will be different.

The five males around the release site have continued to display, with ever-increasing intensity. A definite hierarchy has been established. Purple 5 is undoubtedly top dog this year, but Pink 2 looks like he might be able to challenge in 2013. We have had no news from France of T5, but we are still optimistic that the next report might be on this side of the channel.

March 2012

After the stability of the winter, there have been lots of movements this month. The group of females left the release site on 14th March, leaving Black 9, the young male they had been moving around with, alone. Within a few days he had started to associate with the older males. The females were difficult to pin down, but in the following two weeks they were seen twice at the new project release site, before Yellow 22 and Black 17 returned to the original release site on 30th March. Orange 15, our oldest female, has not returned, and we will be making every effort to find her in the run up to the breeding season.

The bustard from the 2011 release which travelled the furthest, T5, was last seen in Normandy on 25th March. It has been looked for since, and the lack of a radio signal means we can be confident it has left the area. Now we must hope it will be able to find its way back to Wiltshire.

With March came the beginning of the lekking season, and all five males at the release site have been displaying, with varying degrees of success. Purple 5, at five years old, is by far the most impressive. Pink 2 is the only other bird prepared to challenge him, and we have seen a few confrontations between the two. On one occasion they were pushing each other with necks entwined. Male bustards can be very violent at this time of year, but so far things have been fairly peaceful, probably because we have only seen one mature male.

February 2012

Since arriving at the original release site in early January, Orange 15 and Black 9 have formed a stable female-juvenile group with Yellow 22 and Black 17. This is a very encouraging state of affairs, and we hope the young birds are learning from the older females. A report of four bustards at the new release site may have related to this group wandering, or to other birds returning after the winter, but they were not seen again.

While the older females appear to be indulging their maternal instincts, the males have shown little interest in the young birds. Purple 5 and Pink 2 have spent the winter together, although their association seems likely to come to an end during the lekking season – Purple 5 celebrated leap year day by being seen in display for the first time this year. Pink 5 and Black 20, also males, remain in the release pen and move around with the other males when they visit the pen.

Finally, we can report that the bustard in northern France is alive and well. At the time of writing it is in the same field in which it has spent the last two and a half months, feeding on lucerne. With the help of local people, we have established that it is a bird which was released from our new release site in 2011. We are hoping it will make the return crossing in the next few weeks as spring approaches.

January 2012

A picture of one of the best moments of last year to start the new year - Red 28, a three year old female great bustard with her one month old chick, on Salisbury Plain in early June 2011. Unfortunately, this particular story did not have a happy ending, but we are hopeful that 2012 will bring successful breeding once again.

Since the last update, we have had some good news and some bad news. Most encouragingly, we can report the first interchange between the two release sites. On 4th January, Orange 15 (a 2004 female) was seen at the original release site in the company of Black 9, one of the 2011 birds but from the new release site. Since then, Black 9 has become associated with Black 17, from the original release site. This is just the kind of interaction we were expecting when we decided to release birds at two sites rather than one.

Despite appearing to be well set for the winter, the bird on the Dorset coast with a satellite transmitter was found dead in December. Post-mortem results suggest that a fox was responsible, which is disappointing as we would expect young birds to have developed good responses to foxes by this point in the winter. A different young bustard, this time with a radio transmitter, was seen several times in the Weymouth area up to 18th December. One of these records was at Langton Herring, the same place where Pink 1 and Pink 15 spent the winter of 2010/11.

The most interesting record is of another great bustard with a radio transmitter, this time in northern France! This is not an unprecedented record, as three birds from the project were reported in France in the winter of 2005/6. It is however the first since then, and quite a surprise. It was reported from the same area, northeast of St. Malo, for two weeks until 31st December.

December 2011

The first snow of the winter has just fallen on Salisbury Plain, but it melted within minutes. Conditions so far this month have been nowhere near as harsh as December 2011. Deep snow and a long period of subzero temperatures forced a group of eight wintering great bustards to leave the release site at that time, but things seem different this year. We have a group of seven birds at our normal release site and another group of three at the new release site. We know of several others scattered around the south west, making the movement we expect at this time of year. Then of course there are those birds we expect to have made similar movements, but from which we are still waiting for reports.

Black 6 remains in south Devon, and was most recently seen in early December near Soar, enjoying an area with both oil seed rape and good sea views. Follow the link to see a video of her, taken on 1st December: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y04wGxqa2XA 

A bustard with a radio transmitter and a bustard with a satellite transmitter seem to have chosen the Dorset coast as their wintering sites. The radio transmitter bird was reported near Langton Matravers in Purbeck in late November, but has not been seen since. The satellite transmitter bird, after moving steadily south west for several weeks, now seems to have settled in the Lulworth area, once again moving between oil seed rape fields.

Most of our bustards have probably settled on their wintering site by now – any reports in the next few months would be of great interest as we try to keep track of this year’s released birds.

November 2011

A month ago, we expected to find every released great bustard every day, at their release sites or in surrounding fields. The birds have made rapid progress in that time, becoming more and more adventurous, and those daily checks are now a much greater challenge. Two individuals are wearing satellite transmitters, which allow us to download information on their movements every ten days, but most just have wing tags. As they disperse, we become reliant on sightings from members of the public to help follow their movements – please use the link above if you see a great bustard.

Black 6 has had a few mentions already on this page, and it was no surprise to us when she became the first bird to move a substantial distance. A bustard was seen flying south at Portland Bill on 5th November, then Black 6 was spotted in South Devon on the following day. These are individual movements of 150km then 100km, as the crow flies (although undoubtedly the bustard took a less direct route). No more sightings have followed, so we are left wondering where her journey may have taken her next.

One of the two birds with a satellite transmitter is heading steadily in the same direction, and is now between Salisbury and Blandford, 30km from its release site. The remainder of the birds are all thought to be in the general area of their release sites – almost all have been seen in the last week.

October 2011

We have had lots of young great bustards to keep track of for the last few weeks – thankfully they have stayed in large groups, making our job much easier! At the original release site, the leafy plots of oil seed rape have proved irresistable, with most birds spending all their time feeding or loafing here. As mentioned in September, Black 6 has been the most adventurous of the new group, not seen in the release pen since the first day and spending her time several miles from the site. The majority of other birds have spent short periods in the fields around the pen, before returning. Unfortunately birds have been lost, both to fox predation and to a collision with a fence, but we still have a large group of bustards moving around together, including the two older males which have been at the site for several months.

Soft release seems to have done the trick at the new site too – the young bustards here have been equally settled, with no movements beyond adjacent fields. We have only recorded one casualty here so far – caused by a fence – and the remainder of the birds have moved around the release field and onto adjacent stubbles. Unlike at the original site, where all the birds have been together, they have formed into two distinct groups. Four males are spending most of their time with Orange 15, from the 2004 release, and the remainder of the birds are usually separate from this group.

Survival so far has been very encouraging – we are now expecting the birds to start to spread out, making the challenge of finding them all each day that much harder.

September 2011

The first release of young great bustards in the LIFE project took place on 15th September. The birds had spent just over a week in soft release pens, getting an opportunity to become accustomed to their new surroundings after a month in quarantine. In total, 29 were in the pens when the doors were opened, giving them the chance to walk out into the release area whenever they chose.

The birds were split between two release sites for the first time. Sixteen were released at the usual site, and the remaining thirteen were moved to a new site. So far, none have been particularly adventurous, often returning to their soft release pens and showing a reluctance to leave the immediate area of release. The strongest flyer we have seen is Black 6, who has moved around 500m from the original release site. The birds are starting to develop social groupings, and are associating with older birds at both sites. We hope that they will continue to stay at the release sites for the next few weeks, where they are safest and we can keep a close eye on them.

August 2011

After a long journey by truck and plane from Saratov in Russia, 35 young great bustards arrived at the quarantine site at 11pm on 4th August. All appear to be in good health, and we can now look forward to their release in early September. This year’s birds will carry black wing tags, and once they are released we will be delighted to receive reports on their whereabouts. Some will carry satellite or radio transmitters, making the task of keeping track of them a little easier!

Purple 5 and Pink 2 remain the only great bustards around the release site, and are never seen apart. Today, 8th August, we have received reports of two females from different sites south of Salisbury Plain. Orange 15 is from the first year of releases in 2004, while Yellow 22 is a year younger.

It looks like the pair of stone-curlews breeding at the release site have failed – we did see them with two young chicks soon after hatching, but they have not been seen for almost two weeks now. Having said that, they are secretive birds, so you never know! A few signs of autumn around too – wheatears, yellow wagtails, a tree pipit and a hobby have been seen near the site in the last few days. 

July 2011

Two male great bustards, Purple 5 and Pink 2, are spending most of their time at the release site. The two birds seem closely associated now, but they spent a few months apart during the breeding season, when the hormones were flowing and Purple 5 was the dominant male.

The number of chicks being reared in Russia at the moment is very encouraging – we hope that around 35 birds will be imported in August.

There is still a pair of stone-curlews at the site, sitting on their second brood of the summer. The eggs are due to hatch towards the end of the month, after the successful fledging of a chick from their first brood.

June 2011

Two pieces of bad news came in quick succession in early June. First, we saw Yellow 22 back at the release site, with two other bustards. Her chick at this stage would have been about two weeks old, so we could be sure that she had lost it. For Yellow 22, a failure at chick stage nevertheless represented progress, and a valuable learning experience, as she had never hatched eggs before. She will approach the breeding season next year a more experienced bird.

A couple of days later we had a much bigger setback, as the remains of Red 28 were found, and her chick was missing. The assumption is that a fox was responsible, and that Red 28 was probably killed in defence of her chick. To lose a chick is disappointing, but somewhat expected for a young and inexperienced female. To lose a female of breeding age is undoubtedly a blow.

Looking forward, we have always been aware of the difficulties of  fox control on military land and recognise that a small population of great bustards is particularly vulnerable to predation. We hope to release birds at a second site this year, as one of the key actions of the LIFE project. The ability to implement a fox control plan will be an important priority here.

May 2011

In April we found two females with nests, Red 28 and Yellow 22. These were kept under very close observation, with many hours put in by staff and volunteers, and we were delighted that both nests hatched. This was the first time Yellow 22 had been seen with chicks, and only the second year of breeding for Red 28. We never saw more than one chick in each case, but the height of the vegetation made it impossible to see more than the head of the female except on rare occasions.

The two families wandered widely, and appeared to be feeding well – although the chick was never visible, we were able to watch the females finding and offering food regularly.

The presumed father of the chicks, Purple 5, continued to display until the middle of the month. At this point his hormones subsided and his breeding activities were over for another year.