Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
teenth century, however, it had disappeared. The Reverend Davies noted in 1885 that 'The rocks which
formpartofthissandycove[ThreeChimneysinBroughtonBay]usedtobefrequentedbyasmallcolony
ofred-leggedcrows,theheraldicbirdknownasthechoughbutoflateyearstheyseemtohaveabandoned
the place, as none have been seen here for some time.' One school of thought is that a succession of cold
winters started the decline. The birds also suffered fromindiscriminate shooting andtrapping. Their feed-
ing habits were unfortunate and as they searched in the clifftop grassland for invertebrates many were
caught in rabbit traps, particularly after the introduction of the now illegal gin trap. A few of the trapped
birds were kept as pets and Dillwyn records that 'My late friend, Mr Bowdler, of the Rhyddings, kept a
tame one, which displayed the most extraordinary sagacity in pilfering and hiding whatever came in the
way.' This is the man who 'bowdlerised' Shakespeare, by taking out all the 'rude' words and who stated,
'My object is to offer these plays to the public in such a state that they may be read with pleasure in
all companies, and placed without danger in the hands of every person who is capable of understanding
them.' Although criticised for tampering with Shakespeare's text, Bowdler deserves a certain amount of
creditformakingtheplayswellknowntoawideaudience.Itisinterestingtothinkthatwhilehewasedit-
ing the text he had to contend with an unruly chough. Many more choughs were sold for food. Sir John
Llewelyn, Lord Swansea, recalled in 1900 that they had been sold in Swansea Market as 'Billy Cocks'
and were 'much prized by French sailors as an article of diet'.
Following this decimation, from being a relatively common bird choughs became rare visitors to
Gower. A family of four was seen in Caswell Bay in August 1944, and individuals were sighted in
1943, 1972 and 1974. It was not until 1990, however, that the first pair of choughs reappeared, and there
was great excitement among local naturalists when the birds were seen prospecting for a nest site near
Mewslade, but no nest was built. They usually begin breeding in late April, building a large cup-shaped
nest of sticks, bound with grass stems and lined with wool or hair, in a cliff crevice or cave. Neither bird
was ringed so their origin was unknown. Breeding was finally confirmed in 1991 (Fig. 53) when a pair
produced three young,oneofwhich wasunfortunately taken byaperegrine immediately after leaving the
nest hole. Following that date a pair, presumably the same birds, bred each year until 1994 and again in
1999. Unfortunately in 1995 a local farmer shot two birds near their breeding area, after which a number
of conservation bodies set up the Gower Chough Group, to carry out annual surveys of the number of
birds and their locations, in order to monitor the population.
