Urgent action to conserve curlews

Curlew conservationist

Mary Colwell is the first winner of the NGO Educational Trust’s Bellamy Award to come from outside the shooting world. Bristol-based Colwell is also the first individual woman to have won the award.

The official estimate for breeding curlew in the UK is 68,000 pairs, but Colwell thinks the number could be 50% lower. The situation in Ireland and Wales is even worse, with numbers down 97% and 80% respectively.

“Curlew are declining because nesting and feeding sites have changed, but also because predation rates are so high,” she said.

“At some sites 100% of eggs and/or chicks are predated. This is an uncomfortable truth for the many organisations that are reluctant to openly discuss the need to reduce predator numbers in the breeding season. Curlew will only have a future if this reality is accepted,” she added.

NGO Educational Trust administrator Brian Hayes said: “Mary Colwell realised that if the curlew is going to be saved the predator control systems used by gamekeepers are going to have to be adopted by conservation organisations.”

In Wales, curlew conservation groups have united to form Curlew Cymru. With fewer than

400 breeding pairs, it is thought the bird will be extinct here by 2030.

“Curlews are one of the most pressing priorities for bird conservation in the

UK, and it is vital that we work together to protect the remaining population,” said Patrick Lindley, senior ornithologist at National Resources Wales, which hosted the group’s first meeting on 21 June.

He said a co-ordinated programme of action is, “urgently required to help ensure we continue to hear and see this charismatic bird” in Wales.

Detailed plans about the action to be taken to support curlew conservation will be unveiled at the next Curlew Cymru meeting, which is to be held in November.

For details, go to: www.curlewcountry.org