Busway team in bird rescue

Contractors working on the £89 million scheme are used to helping wildlife, having moved more than 1,500 slow worms to new habitats since the project was given the go-ahead.

But on Tuesday (February 14), it was a creature of the feathered variety that they had to defend from its notoriously aggressive predator.

The tiny bird’s plight began when it was attacked by a number of crows and magpies at the depot of main contractor BAM Nuttall in Kingsway.

Gateman Mark Pollard initially chased the winged aggressors away, but shortly afterwards one of the magpies managed to snatch the chick.

Mr Pollard said: “The magpie flew away with it, but as it flew over the concrete plant in dropped the chick in the yard.”

Manager of the concrete plant, Gary Marshall, contacted BAM Nuttall’s environmental manager Neil Goulding, and the bird was kept safe in a cardboard box until the RSPCA arrived.

Identified as a grebe, the chick was then taken to a Bedfordshire wildlife rescue centre.

And on Thursday, because grebes do not tend to thrive in captivity, it was released into an existing colony in Tring where it is understood to be doing well.

Mr Goulding said: “As well as the slow worms we have translocated rare orchids and other plants away from the busway site, and have also taken measures to protect badgers and pipistrelle bats, but this one was a first for me.”