What the heck is a lek?
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
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It’s thirsty work being evil all the time! Once the Devil tried to bury Devizes with a huge shovelful of earth – but got lost. He met a man on the road and asked him the way. The man, thinking fast, said, ‘You tell me! I set off from Marlborough to Devizes, but it’s so far that my hair was black when I started and now it’s grey!’ The Devil gave up and dumped the earth right where he stood. We know this mound of earth as Cley Hill. After that the Devil tried to get to his den at Clatford Bottom and have a drink by his fire, but a stone blocked the way. The Devil couldn’t move it even with five oxen. He did get a drink in the end, by tricking a young man … but the man only brought him water, which the fiery Devil doesn’t like at all! The Devil never has any luck, at least in stories.
Males great bustards perform spectacular courtship displays, gathering at a ‘lek’ or small display ground to try to impress the females.
The great bustard has a dignified slow walk but tends to run when disturbed, rather than fly.
The hen-bird on display at The Salisbury Museum was one of the last great bustards to be eaten in the town!