Ghettoblasters roped in to save corncrake

The blasters are needed to replay the sounds of farm traffic - tractors and their grass mowers - in areas where the rasping, croaking corncrake can still be heard, mainly along the banks of the River Shannon.

The theory is that corncrakes are attracted to the sounds of agricultural machinery.

They touch down nearby when they hear it, and can be temporarily trapped and fitted with a special radio transmitter before being release again, which helps conservationists keep in touch with their movements.

Over the past five years, farmers in the region have been co-operating with the campaign to save the bird, cutting meadows late each year to avoid disturbing nests - and receiving a £42-an-acre payment in the process.

But corncrake numbers there have only been stabilised.

So a new effort has been launched to increase the breed’s population - and that is where the ghettoblaster comes in.

With the help of the sets, recorded tapes of the tractors are played.

The young birds trapped that way are then watched to see what happens to them after breeding, with the aim of eventually improving their habitat.

Money for the project is being provided by Duchas, the Irish Heritage Service, and much of the work is being done by volunteers from Cork’s University College and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

UCC’s Anita Donaghy said: ‘‘We need a lot of ghettoblasters because we are working in very wide open spaces. And we are appealing to anybody who has one to contact us.

‘‘The condition of the set is unimportant as long as the tape deck works - and the louder the better.’’

BirdWatch’s Catherine Casey said some local farms now believed the conservations were ‘‘madder than ever’’ because of the ghettoblaster move.

‘‘But most of them support this attempt to save such an important species.’’