Today, 21st April, is World Curlew Day and we’re joined by CurlewLIFE Project Manager, Becca Stewart, who is reflecting on last year’s breeding season and looking forward to the new season for one of the UK’s most important conservation priority species, the Eurasian Curlew.
If you've seen Saving our Wild Isles on iPlayer then you'll have heard the haunting “cur-lee” call of the Curlew and learnt about the plight of this special bird. You can hear wintering Curlews on the coast, where numbers more than double when birds from Scandinavia join our residents. In springtime, the UK's breeding Curlew population heads to their inland breeding grounds on moors and farmland. It’s here that this iconic species needs help to get as many chicks as possible to survive and fledge, to sustain populations currently in decline. The decline is steep, with 55% fewer Curlew recorded in the UK since the 1990s. CurlewLIFE aims to halt declines in five priority landscapes across the UK.
Halfway point for CurlewLIFEAs CurlewLIFE project manager, I have the pleasure of supporting the site teams that are managing habitat for Curlew in five breath-taking landscapes: the Antrim Plateau and Lough Erne Lowlands in Northern Ireland; Ysbyty Ifan and Hiraethog, North Wales; Geltsdale and Hadrian’s Wall in Northern England and Insh Marshes in the Highlands of Scotland. The four-year project started in November 2020 so we are over halfway through working to stabilise Curlew declines.
CurlewLIFE project sites
In this blog, I'll reflect on the amazing work done and the successes from 2022, hoping that 2023 will bring more good news. For example, fledging success (that is, chicks are developed enough to fly) was at an unprecedented high in Northern Ireland and, in other sites, hatching success gave cause for celebration.
The video below of our team on the Antrim Plateau will give you a fantastic insight into the work they've been doing and the difference they're making for Curlew:
Ysbyty Ifan & Hiraethog (Conwy), North WalesLucy Foster and her team work in the stunning uplands of North Wales. They deployed temporary nest fencing for the first-time last year, protecting nests from ground predators, and worked hard to find hatched chicks. They installed permanent -predator exclusion fences which protects an area where several Curlew pairs now nest each year. They saw more chicks fledge in 2022 and hatching success was 70%. You can read the full Wales 2022 season round up here.
Temporary nest fencing in Conwy, North Wales. © Lucy Foster/RSPB.
Geltsdale and Hadrian’s Wall, Northern EnglandRadio tagging of chicks was carried out by our Conservation Science colleagues Sarah West and David Douglas. Finding chicks once they hatch is challenging because they are well camouflaged with their mottled feathers. It’s important to know whether they survive until they can fly, and radio tagging helps us to find out. Crucially, we need to know why chicks die and whether they survive to contribute to the population. The results did not disappoint. The team followed chicks from 27 nests. Read more about this in Sarah’s blog.
Insh Marshes, ScotlandInsh Marshes is a wetland where flooding poses unique challenges and opportunities for humans and Curlews alike, take a Curlew’s eye view here. Project Officer Thijs Claes worked with a fantastic team of volunteers to monitor the birds during the breeding season, which gave us great news that nesting success went from 0.4 to 0.8, doubling from 2021.
Insh Marsh wetland mosaic habitat prone to flooding. © Becca Stewart/RSPB.
Lough Erne Lowlands, Northern IrelandNavigating the drumlin islands and counting Curlew from a boat is a feat estate manager Amy Burns and her team at the Lower Lough reserve have honed over a decade. Last year saw increases in nesting success for our Curlews. At the Upper Lough, Jonathan Pinnick works with 70 farmers to improve Curlew habitat and, after a winter of habitat works like removing dense scrub, he is hoping for a fantastic 2023 for this threatened species.
Adult Curlew at Lough Erne. © Amy Burns/RSPB.
Antrim Plateau, Northern IrelandHere, the 2022 Curlew breeding season was astonishing. Conservation Officer Katie Gibb and team fenced 26 nests and estimated that 69 chicks fledged. The collaboration between farmers, landowners and the conservation team here show that determination and cooperation work for this species in this landscape.
Hatched Curlew chicks in the Antrim Hills. © Katie Gibb/RSPB.
What is next2022 boosted our confidence in planning for the remaining two years of CurlewLIFE and hope for the fortunes of an iconic UK species in our landscapes for 2023 and beyond. For more information about how to get involved in CurlewLIFE, visit our website.
AcknowledgementsCurlews in crisis has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union and several in-country partners. Details about our partners can be found here on our website.
Continue readingA view from the mudflats A view from the fields Looking to the skies – the UK’s importance on a bird superhighway
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