Saving England’s curlews
Mary Colwell, chair of Curlew Recovery Partnership England, and Professor Russell Wynne, partnership manager, explain what is being done to help stem the decline of this iconic species
IN the face of what is being called the sixth mass extinction on Earth, it is perhaps understandable to feel overwhelmed and disempowered. But, occasionally, the plight of a familiar species penetrates our national psyche, precipitating wider awareness and urgent action. The much-loved curlew is one of those species. Headline figures outlining overall UK declines of 50% in the past couple of decades – and the truly shocking threat of extinction as a breeding bird across all of Ireland, Wales and large swathes of lowland England and Scotland – have certainly focused minds across the board.
Over the past couple of years, Curlew Recovery Summits have been hosted at Highgrove and 10 Downing Street. These resulted in the Defra-supported Curlew Recovery Partnership England (CRP), which has a steering group of nine organisations. It was launched on 1 March 2021 with the aim to influence future Defra policy for the benefit of curlews and to ensure that those working to conserve the birds are equipped with the right knowledge and support. Our network already comprises an eclectic mix of farmers, students, land managers, birders, gamekeepers, scientists and even a greenkeeper on a golf course, who is doing great work protecting a returning pair of curlews and their chicks.
However, the challenge of delivering curlew recovery is daunting. The curlew has unwittingly found itself at the heart of many of the major conservation issues of our age: direct habitat loss (linked to peat extraction, wetland drainage and urban development); loss of eggs and chicks (primarily deriving from predation and early cutting of grass for silage); upland afforestation; recreational disturbance; and coastal and floodplain inundation due to long-term sea-level rise and extreme weather events. Given these multiple pressures, it’s easy to see why curlews are struggling to survive in modern landscapes.
So where to start? Our initial focus has been on providing advice and information on how to work with curlews. We have created an illustrated ‘Introduction to Curlews’ slide pack that can be delivered to local community groups and schools and a ‘Curlew Fieldworker Toolkit’ to ensure those engaged in surveying, monitoring and nest protection have access to the latest knowledge.
Our blogs give topical perspectives on challenging issues, such as what can (and can’t) be done to help curlews during silage cutting. On World Curlew Day (21 April), we delivered an online seminar featuring four expert guest speakers, which can now be viewed via our website (curlewrecovery.org). But perhaps our greatest achievement has been to encourage respectful dialogue between communities that have previously struggled to identify common purpose, aided by our determination to remain objective and evidence based.
Our current activities reflect our commitment to preserve both the population and range of breeding curlews in England. England has an estimated 30,000 breeding pairs, with the highest density in the Pennines. In these upland areas, the CRP will work to ensure curlews and other species dependent upon extensive open landscapes are taken into consideration in future policy decisions, including tree-planting schemes, windfarm placement and predator control licensing.
In lowland southern England, there may be as few as 500 pairs of curlews clinging on, typically in small, scattered ‘hotspots’ that are inexorably being extinguished, one by one. If we lose these birds and the 1,500 or so pairs left in Ireland and Wales, the UK and Irish range of the species will halve. Significant resources are therefore being devoted to securing some of these local populations, with innovative techniques, such as head-starting (raising chicks in captivity before release) being trialled in combination with more traditional habitat management and predator control measures. But, in reality, these actions are just buying time until we can address major national-scale challenges, such as understanding why the UK has the highest densities of generalist predators in Europe and how we might reimagine our relationship with food production and the natural environment.
Looking forwards, our next task is to develop a longer-term work programme, drawing upon feedback from regional workshops and direct correspondence; this will enable us to focus on the most pressing issues in each region. We will also be engaging with Defra at the highest level, to help identify opportunities for curlewfriendly farming and land management that also deliver wider public benefit. We’re under no illusions that we have a long and bumpy road ahead of us, but we are laying strong foundations and are grateful for all the support received to date.
It is undeniably true that everyone has a role to play in saving England’s curlews, whether that be through land management, awareness raising, community engagement or scientific research, and everyone is welcome.
To find out more about the CRP, email hello@curlewrecovery.org or visit: curlewrecovery.org
Mary Colwell, founder of Curlew Action, is a producer and writer
It is undeniably true that everyone has a role to play in saving England’s curlews