Helpston's wildlife

Quail and corncrake

The calls of the quail [click to listen] and the corncrake or land-rail [click to listen] were very familiar to John Clare.

While in the juicy corn the hidden quail

Cries 'wet my foot' and hid as thoughts unborn

The fairy like and seldom-seen land-rail

Utters 'craik craik' like voices underground,

Right glad to meet the evening's dewy veil

And see the light fade into glooms around.

Both were common birds of the open fields, but equally both were seldom seen. Clare wrote

'The quail is almost as much of a mystery in the summer landscape and comes with the green corn like the [land-rail], tho it is seen more often and is more easily urged to take wing it makes an odd noise in the grass as if it said 'wet my foot wet my foot' which Weeders and Haymakers hearken to as a prophecy of rain'

Both of these birds are migrants. Unusually quail that breed in northern Europe in the summer include some young birds hatched earlier in the year at more southerly latitudes. Their habitat of migrating across the Mediterranean and making land fall at dawn in North Africa, has made them very easy to catch in large numbers using long nets set parallel to the coast. Historic reports record catches of two million quail in 1897!

Both the quail and the corncrake have been affected by the changing face of the countryside. Modern agricultural techniques leave few undisturbed habitats for these birds to nest in and they are no longer found locally. The quail is still occasionally heard in the region, but the corncrake has disappeared from most of England, although the RSPB has recently started a re-introduction programme on the Nene Washes, near Whittlesey and four calling males were heard there in the summer of 2006.