The political birder: Mark Avery
If we’re to stop the UK’s Eurasian Curlews suffering the same fate as North America’s Eskimo Curlew, we need a comprehensive recovery plan.
If we’re to stop the UK’s Eurasian Curlews suffering the same fate as North America’s Eskimo Curlew, we need a comprehensive recovery plan.
Curlews are amazing birds. A friend, relatively new to birding, spent five minutes telling me about the Eurasian Curlew she saw recently in the Yorkshire
She was blown away by an encounter which many birders might not have regarded as special.
Eurasian Curlew is listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as globally Near Threatened, because of population declines across its range. Two curlew species have already gone from super-abundant to probably extinct and others are declining, too. Eskimo Curlew was so numerous in North America in the late 19th century that canning factories were built in Labrador to process ‘doughbirds’ shot on autumn migration.
In spring, Eskimo Curlews took a different route north and were known as ‘prairie chickens’ in the Great Plains because of their abundance. But, within a decade, the factories had closed and perhaps the last Eskimo Curlew was seen in Texas in 1963. Similarly, the Slender-billed Curlew of Eurasia was once abundant but hasn’t been seen in any numbers for decades and might well have gone, too. It’s tough to be a curlew.
Falling down
Eurasian Curlews have declined across the UK and Ireland; the British Isles holds around 30% of the world population so we have the responsibility for a large share of this conservation problem.
A few pairs of Eurasian Curlew nest in my adopted county of Northamptonshire and I go to look at one of them now and again. They nest near a river, in a meadow, on a site which is easier to look at than to get to; this seclusion must help the birds. Lord Lilford, in his 1895 avifauna of Northamptonshire, regarded them as uncommon passage migrants, so maybe their status hasn’t changed very much here over that long period – it’s difficult to tell – but I can’t imagine many lowland counties having more than a smattering of nesting Eurasian
Curlews in the years to come. The UK future for this species depends largely on the uplands.
To hear some shooters, you might get the impression that Eurasian Curlew evolved in the last 150 years on the grouse moors of northern England. But let’s be clear and fair: a form of grousemoor management, including especially killing Red Foxes, does benefit Eurasian Curlews. Their densities are about twice as high on grouse moors as other heather moorland and their nesting success is also higher. Other places where Eurasian Curlews do well, such as Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles are natural fox-free zones. But concentrating on predators to the exclusion of all other factors is wrong (as is ignoring it completely).
Silage-making is a massive factor – before WWII there was little silage making, least of all in the uplands; now it is a normal, intensive and Eurasian Curlew-killing land use. If you see big-bag silage in the uplands you are looking at a signal of lost Eurasian Curlews.
A mixture of more meadows mown for hay late in the season, sensitively managed grass and heather moorland and low Red Fox numbers would be my suggested recipe for Eurasian Curlew recovery. Northumberland National Park has a Eurasian Curlew on its logo – maybe that would be a good place to throw everything at a recovery project? ■
❝Eurasian Curlew is listed as globally Near Threatened, because of population declines across range❞ its Birdwatch•June 2021