REARING BLACK-TAILED GODWITS FROM wild-laid eggs for later release 'headstarting' in conservation parlance - is an anxiety-inducing business, as I discover on a late-June visit to WWT Welney Wetland Centre, Norfolk.
First, you have to find and collect the eggs before they're snaffled by predators, which is tricky in the wet grassland habitat favoured by this wading bird. Then you have to transport this extremely delicate cargo safely over the bumpy fenland tracks. Finally, you have to incubate the eggs, mimicking the work of parent birds by turning them multiple times each day, and using hi-tech tools to monitor the health of the growing chicks inside. And the heavy lifting hasn't even begun yet.
"The hatching period is the really intense bit," says William Costa, lead aviculturist at the WWT and a member of the team responsible for the headstarting element of Project Godwit. This five-year partnership between the WWT and the RSPB aimed to boost UK numbers of one of our rarest breeding waders. And Costa has spent countless antisocial hours - 4am is a common hatching time - keeping watch over chicks at this most critical stage.
"Each egg has an ID, linked to its parents in the nest, which we apply to the corresponding hatchling so that we can follow it through its life," he says, showing me around the incubation room in a Portakabin, now mostly tidied away for the season. "If I've got four hatching at the same time, I need to sit and watch them. You just have to be there."
This story is from the May 2023 edition of BBC Wildlife.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the May 2023 edition of BBC Wildlife.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Flightless birds
Our pick of 10 curious birds that have lost the ability to fly
ALL YOU EVER NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT THE Shoebill
THIS PREHISTORIC-LOOKING BIRD IS affectionately known by some as 'king of the marshes' as it is huge (up to 1.5m tall with a 2.4m wingspan) and resides in the freshwater marshes and swamps of East Africa.
Slime: protector, lubricant and glue
GOO, GUNGE, GUNK... WHILE THERE are many names for the stuff that makes things slippery or sticky, slime isn't a single material but a label for a variety of substances with similar physical properties. Those qualities are desirable to many living things, which is why slime is made by such a wide range of organisms.
How do parrots learn to swear?
THERE ARE FEW THINGS AS GLORIOUSLY entertaining as the effing and blinding of a potty-mouthed parrot.
Why are walruses so chubby?
AS A GENERAL RULE, TERRESTRIAL mammals are furry, while aquatic ones are fat. It doesn't work across the board: sea otters rarely leave the water but have the densest fur of any mammal.
What is the lotus effect?
WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF WATCHING the clock on the wall of a dentist's waiting room, you can always pass a bit of time with a rummage through the bowl of fragrant botanical wonders next to the leaflets about expensive cosmetic work.
Are there any plants in Antarctica?
CONTINENTS DON'T COME ANY MORE inhospitable than Antarctica, where life must contend with the longest, darkest, coldest winters and a year-round blanket of snow and ice.
LANDLORD OF THE WILD
The humble aardvark is seldom praised for its work digging out homes for other animals
CRACK DOWN
As the new Amazon drama Poacher hits our screens, we take a look at the fight to end ivory poaching in India
Wild words
Spending time observing and writing about the natural world can be transformational