This week we're focusing on the plight of the curlew - a bird that would be at the top of many lists to be the UK's totemic bird - not just because our coasts and estuaries host internationally important numbers of them in the winter, not only because our hills and moors (and some lowland areas too) are places that are globally significant breeding areas for curlew but as much because their wild presence and evocative calls are part of  the soul of our countryside. They have woven their existence into our consciousness, our art and culture and yet they are in trouble. 

Yesterday Chris Collett looked at the place curlews have in our culture - today Sarah Sanders, RSPB's Curlew Recovery Programme Manager looks at the crisis facing our curlews.

At this time of year, the best place to see curlew is out on the moorlands and hills.  I have a pair that I regularly look out for when I’m running round Alnwick moor. The distinctive ‘curlee-curlee’ call they make is something you can’t easily forget and it always lifts my spirits even when I have a few more miles uphill to go.

In his 1912 edition of the Birds of Northumberland, the natural historian George Balam included a quote from a friend, which captures the experience beautifully.

‘A moor without a curlew is like a night without the moon, and he who has not eye for the one and an ear for the other is a mere body without a soul’

After watching the film footage yesterday, it’s shocking to think we could lose the call of the curlew from some places in the UK. Earlier this year, I posted a blog about a ground-breaking assessment which concluded that curlews and godwits are probably the most threatened group of birds in the world. It’s likely that we have already lost two species from the group, so we don’t want to lose another.

I mentioned that the curlew we see here in the UK are in serious trouble. The breeding population has almost halved since the mid 1990s. In some places, like Northern Ireland where the decline has been 82%, we are facing a real possibility that they could disappear altogether in the next twenty years. At the same time we have a global responsibility to take action as the UK is the third most important country for breeding curlews. We are home to up to a quarter of the breeding population and numbers are dropping here faster than anywhere else in the world.

If they are to survive, curlew need to produce at least one chick every couple of years but they are currently struggling to do this because of changes in the way our countryside is managed. Photo credit Tim Melling

Curlews are widely distributed across the countryside. They like to nest in open spaces which are fairly flat and covered in rough damp grass. So what is causing the low breeding success? In some places land has been drained to improve pasture for sheep and cattle. In others, land has been converted to forestry. Changes to sheep and cattle grazing practices and the timing of grass cuts have all had an impact along with the predation of eggs and chicks.

There is, however, some good news. The RSPB has launched a five-year programme to save the curlew. We can’t do this on our own. A key part of this first phase is finding out what we need to do for curlews so that, with the support of land-managers and farmers, the countryside is managed so that curlews thrive. We will be hearing more tomorrow from farmers across the four countries on how they are doing this.

We must do all we can to keep the call of our much-loved curlew!