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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Inheritance is a funny thing. What happens if a man has two sons by two different wives? Who inherits? That’s what happened to Sir Walter Long back in the 16th century. His new wife was keen to promote her babe and bad-mouthed his eldest son, a rather feckless young man. Walter listened and he wrote a new will giving all to the younger boy. When the will was written up, the clerk saw a ghostly white hand float above it – and ran out screaming that the first Lady Long’s ghost was protecting her son! The legal wrangling went on till Walter died, and beyond. The lawyers arrested him in his coffin for cutting out his elder son! In the end there was a compromise: one son got one manor, at South Wraxall, and the other the manor at Draycott Cerne.
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!