Great Bustard Group

Fergus

Fergus came from an egg the GBG and its partner organisation in Russia, the A N Severtsov Institute of Ecology rescued from the cultivators in 2004. This was the first year the GBG brought birds into the UK. The story was covered by the BBC tv correspondent Fergus Walsh. To his frustration the Russians really struggled with the sounds of “Fergus” and he was usually addressed as “Fur-goose”, and he never gave up trying to correct them.

That year the GBG brought 22 birds into the UK. They had to undergo a very strict 30 days of quarantine and it was at the very end of this period that one male bird, in a short trial flight, bashed is wing up and along with other damage  dislocated his left shoulder. Despite excellent veterinary care the should could not be repaired and the male was moved to an aviary. Karen Waters has looked after him ever since. The name “Fergus” was given to him very early on and it has stuck. Fergus has lived with various other birds, including some females but his injury puts him off balance and the other birds will attack him if he falls over.

He appears to greatly enjoy people, sometimes interacting with a series of barks, grunts and a distinctive baying noise. He does sometimes tire of guests and then gives them a good peck. Over the years he has taken a small piece from the limbs of  celebrities including John Craven, Ray Mears and other dignitaries like Her Majesties Yeoman Ravenmaster from the Tower of London.

The Stonehenge Bustard (Gertrude)

In 2009 the GBG was operating an egg rescue programme in Saratov Oblast in southern Russia with its project partner, the Severtsov Institute of Ecology. One of the chicks raised from this operation has become famous as, Gertrude. She was reared in the same way as the other chicks, with some elaborate measures to avoid habituation or imprinting on humans. These measures included using feeding puppets and dehumanisation suits. Gertrude, and her alone, became more attached to humans than any other bird we have reared. She lives with other female Great Bustards for most of the year, but every spring, when the other females fly to the lek, where the males are displaying, Gertrude flies across to Stonehenge and is clearly attracted by the crowds of people there. She spends the early part of the spring at the Stones, interacting with the visitors and staff, and for these few months, Gertrude is quite tame. She then flies off to join the other females later in the summer.

Henry

Great Bustards typically nest in crops and seem to like the cover it affords them. The females sit very tightly and very flat and are absolutely motionless on the approach of anyone. When the GBG was searching for nests in Spain (all fully licensed and supported by the very helpful Spanish government), we found it very hard to find the nests. The females would not flush and reveal the nest unless the searcher was within a metre or two, sometimes mere centimetres of standing on the nest.

David Waters brought his dogs out to Spain each year and the combination of their scenting abilities and the disturbance they create by quartering back and forth encourages the females to flush and reveal the nest. The technique is also used to save nesting females from the dangers of spring mowing in England.

The dogs are well travelled, have been to Spain for 5 seasons and are well trained. When working in Spain they would eat four times their usual diet, and still lose weight!