The return of the ‘Cornish Chough’ is for many people the biggest event in birding in Cornwall. The Chough is an iconic bird, with a very distinctive bill, legs and call, and has appeared on flags and emblems in Cornwall for hundreds of years. This is exemplified by the 11th Battalion Home Guard, based at Trerice, choosing the Chough as their emblem.

The last Chough in Cornwall died in 1973. In 2001, three Chough returned from Ireland and settled on the Lizard. The rest, as they say, is history. In this presentation, we will tell you what went wrong and then why they returned so that we now have a flourishing population of over 300 birds.