This blog was written by Nick - residential volunteer at RSPB West Sedgemoor, Swell Wood and Greylake.
Some of you may remember a blog I wrote earlier in the spring, about our work to increase the breeding success of curlew on RSPB West Sedgemoor. For those who may have missed it, you can read it here.
The curlew is a large wading bird which has suffered worrying declines in the UK over recent years. RSPB West Sedgemoor still has a good breeding population however, so anything we can do to boost their success rate is important. Ex-residential volunteer Josh lead on this project, initially locating nests, before we fenced them off with predator-proof electric fencing.
While we were putting up these fences, Josh would install some monitoring equipment and then record the length, width and weight of the eggs. This information could then be used to predict a hatch date, which usually takes somewhere between 27-29 days. During this time, Josh would return to nest every 7-10 days to check on both the status of the clutch and the battery for the electric fence. As soon as the eggs were discovered to have hatched, the fence would be removed, allowing the chicks to disperse and feed as quickly as possible.
Trail cameras were used to help monitor the nests.
In total, the team managed to locate and fence five curlew nests this spring. Of these, one was unfortunately predated upon by birds of prey, relatively early. However four hatched successfully and were quickly released to run free on the grasslands of West Sedgemoor.
Locating curlew nests is no easy task, millions of years of evolution has seen to that, and as the season progresses and the grass grows taller it becomes almost impossible. Therefore pinpointing the exact location of five nests is a great achievement. Observations give us some idea of how many nests we didn’t locate. It’s difficult to come up with an exact number, but it looks as though as many as 21 pairs attempted to breed on West Sedgemoor this spring.
Calculating the number of fledged chicks is even more difficult, but all the indicators certainly point to this being one of the best years in the reserve’s history! Once fledged, juvenile curlew look almost identical to the adults, with an ever so slightly shorter bill being the only giveaway. Small family groups soaring above us has become a common sight as we get on with our work on the reserve. I can’t help but wonder how many of these youngsters will return to West Sedgemoor when they are ready to breed. Let’s just hope that curlew are breeding here on the Somerset Levels and Moors for many years to come.
A curlew chick on West Sedgemoor.
Finally, on a personal note, this will be my last blog as a residential volunteer at West Sedgemoor. I’m now off for the next few months to work on meadow restoration in North Devon. My two and a half years with the RSPB, first as a fundraiser and then here at West Sedgemoor have been incredible, life changing experiences. So thank you to everyone who I’ve come in contact with along the way. I may well be back one day!
All photos by Joshua Burge.