Corncrakes were once the common bird of the Irish countryside in summer. Known for their loud, rasping ‘crek-crek’ call, they were often cursed for keeping people awake at night. Unfortunately, nesting on the ground in hay meadows meant that, when farming practices changed and modernised, the eggs, chicks and adults were often destroyed by the modern cutting machinery. As a result, the breeding population dramatically declined. Further pressure was added by illegal hunting along their migration routes across Africa. Now usually only found in small numbers each summer on remote islands off western and north-western counties. This male was sunning himself at dawn on Tory Island, Co. Donegal in May 2017.