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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The vicar of Wilcot was going mad. The bells in his church rang on and on, night and day, day and night – but you could only hear them in his house. The vicar of Wilcot had been cursed. There was a drunk man singing outside his window, and then the man, Mr Carter, was hammering at the door and asking to ring the bells. The vicar gave a firm no, and slammed the door in his face. He then joked about it to a friend, and that was his undoing. The friend’s servants head, and they told their friends, and soon everyone was teasing Carter about ringing the bells. Carter went to the Devizes Wizard, William Cantelow, and got a curse on the vicar: that the bells would ring, but only in his house. Cantelow was proud of his work, bragged about it, and news even came to King Charles I. The bells didn’t stop ringing in the vicarage until the day Cantelow died.
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!