For the first time in over two hundred years, the Red-billed Chough has bred in the wild in Kent. This is a fantastic early breeding success by two of the choughs in our Southern England chough restoration project.
It is also a wonderful birthday present for Operation Chough – launched on August 4th 1987.
This is amazing work by all the project partners. Twenty choughs are now flying around the Dover area – and the first wild nest and chick! Congratulations to Wildwood Kent, Kent Wildlife Trust and the staff here at Paradise Park in Cornwall.
Here is a link to The Kent Wildlife Trust’s Facebook post: https://fb.watch/tL5M9FWrx9/
If you are not on Facebook you can see the video below…
…and here is the text:
“Breaking news! First wild Kentish #Chough to breed in over 200 years!
With year two of the Chough Reintroduction project in full flight we’re delighted to confirm that our first cohort have been breeding at the iconic Dover Castle. After finding a cosy hollow our clever pair of young chough collected twigs, built a nest, laid an egg and supported the chick as it fledged.
Unfortunately we suspect the British weather got the better of this little bundle of feathers but it’s a real testament to the teams at Kent Wildlife Trust, wildwoodtrustuk paradiseparkcornwall and all our project partners, funders and members to reach this milestone so soon.
A huge thank you to you all including English Heritage kentdownsnl White Cliffs Countryside Partnership National Trust
But the journey is far from over, together we’ll be releasing more Chough over the next 4-5 years to establish a stable, healthy, thriving population in Kent and beyond.
If you’d like to be a chough champion and keep the chough flying high please support the project by donating, buying or joining.”
For more information from Kent Wildlife Trust click the link below:
