21 Aug 2023
Photography:
Common Crane Photography, Bord Na Mona, Offaly - 11/8/2024 A view of the Common Crane chick with his parents Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/James Crombie
Recently, Bord na Móna announced that a pair of Common Cranes returned from their wintering grounds abroad and successfully fledged a new chick.
This is the second year in a row that a Common Crane has hatched on one of Bord na Móna's peatlands, following a 300-year hiatus. The Common Crane chick, or fledgling, is set to leave Ireland soon with its parents to spend the winter in the warmer regions of Southern Europe.
There have been two additional sightings of Common Cranes at Bord na Móna sites in Offaly and Tipperary in recent months. The Common Cranes have been spotted on Bord na Móna cutaway bog, sites which were formerly used to extract peat for energy use. These sites have been rewetted in recent years under Bord na Móna rehabilitation initiatives.
Bord na Móna coordinates LIFE IP Peatlands and People, a project funded by EU LIFE to carry out restoration and rehabilitation work across a network of peatland sites in Ireland's midlands, as well as to deliver economic resilience and initiatives to stimulate behaviour change for the green transition.
