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.
Menu
The portress, the doorkeeper, at Wimborne Minster was a forgetful old soul. One night she locked the church up fast and tight – but then forgot where she’d put the keys. Now, locks and keys in that time where great chunky things, and you couldn’t call a locksmith. What was she to do? The nuns couldn’t get into the church to say their prayers! So, instead of praying inside, they gathered in a circle around the abbey and prayed for the return of the keys. When they got back to the door a fox was lying there with the keys in its mouth. They laid the fox’s body to one side, let themselves into the church, and called it a miracle. By the end of the service they’d forgotten all about the fox. They didn’t notice as they trooped out that it wasn’t where they’d left it. As for the fox, he could never explain why he’d woken up by the abbey – or where the shiny, jingly things he’d found had gone.
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!