Stone the crows! The chough breeds again

Not since King Arthur's spirit supposedly passed from his body into an obscure member of the crow family on a battlefield 1,400 years ago has the chough caused such excitement in Cornwall.

Yesterday, conservationists confirmed that the emblematic bird was once more breeding in England after half a century. A pair of the rare birds have hatched four chicks at a secret sea cave in west Cornwall after a 10-year project to reintroduce it.

Such is the symbolism of the chough in Cornwall that it features on the county's coat of arms. In Arthurian legend, the Celtic warrior-king will return when the black crow-like bird with a red bill re- establishes itself in Cornwall.

But ornithologists put forward the more prosaic scenario that the chough brood heralded instead a conservation success. Grahame Madge, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, whose wardens have had the chough nest on a 24-hour watch for months, said: "This could be the chough's first step in its recolonisation of England.

"It began to disappear because of modern farming methods and the disappearance of its habitat but a lot of work has gone into recreating suitable sites for its reintroduction. We had reached the stage where we were going to release choughs from a captive breeding programme to kick-start the process but now it seems they have returned spontaneously."

Experts believe the breeding pair are part of a group of five choughs that were blown off course from one of the two nearest established populations in Brittany or South Wales. The four fledgelings hatched earlier this month but news of their arrival was delayed until yesterday for fear of alerting thieves.

Choughs are among Britain's rarest birds, with little more than 300 pairs in Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man and now a cliff in England's southernmost county. The chough's decline began when much of its cliff-top habitat was wiped out by the reduction in livestock and pit ponies, whose grazing exposed the insects on which choughs fed.

Cornish nationalists said the arrival was a good omen. Les Merton, a poet and campaigner, said: "When the chough returns, it shows that Cornwall is resurgent."