The popular TV series Downton Abbey and the stone-curlew, one of the UK’s rarest and most unusual birds, might not seem to have anything in common at first glance.
However, the RSPB Wessex Stone-curlew Project Team has been working with the landowner at Highclere Castle in Hampshire where the series is filmed, as part of a wildlife project going back 30 years to revive the fortunes of the stone-curlew, an endangered wader.
Highclere Castle farms manager, James Phillips, has just received a Royal Agricultural Society award in the House of Lords for the partnership, which helps stone-curlews to nest safely on the estate’s farmland.
Stone curlew by Chris Gomersall (rspb-images.com)
Around 150 pairs of stone-curlews, a third of the UK population, are concentrated in Wiltshire, Hampshire and Berkshire. The stone-curlew has distinctive large yellow staring eyes with a black pupil, long yellow legs and a yellow bill with a black tip. It nests on the ground and has declined largely as a result of changes in farming practice introduced by the Common Agricultural Policy going back 50 years.
“We have been working with landowners to provide safe nesting habitat for stone-curlew within the farmed landscape, and to protect nests and chicks that are vulnerable to farming operations,” said Nick Tomalin, Wessex Farmland Project Manager of the RSPB.
“Traditionally, stone-curlews have nested on very short grass, and these are still important foraging areas. These grassland habitats have declined as pressure to produce more food has led to increased cultivation,” Nick said.
“Stone-curlews prefer to nest on bare, chalky ground, sometimes in spring crops. The eggs and chicks are well camouflaged, which means they may be destroyed by farm machinery.
“The team survey areas of potentially suitable habitat and locate nests, then discuss habitat management with a network of around 300 farmers in order to give the birds the best chance of breeding successfully without disturbance.”
“When a stone-curlew was found on Highclere estate in 2002, the staff managed to include nesting plots as part of their habitat management by 2004. These were used for the first time in 2007, and by 2012 there were two pairs on the estate,” Nick added.
Nesting plots are cultivated areas within fields which farmers leave unplanted in order to provide safe nesting habitats for stone-curlews.
“Last year we lost around 20 per cent of the Wessex stone-curlew population due to the cold spring. But the work done by people like James and his team at Highclere gives the species the best possible chance of recovering again,” Nick said.