About Us
Our Founder and Director, Mary Colwell with General Manager Flo Blackbourn.
About Curlew Action
Our Vision:
A secure place for Curlews and the wildlife that lives alongside them in a natural world, rich in biodiversity, where people are informed about, and engaged with, nature.
Our Mission:
Giving Curlews a secure future through advocacy, supporting conservation efforts, engaging with science and policy, highlighting the cultural importance of Curlews, and by promoting natural history education.
Our Projects
Curlew Action has various ongoing projects to support Curlew conservation. Click on a project's title or picture to learn more about it.
European Collaboration
Many of the Curlews we see here in the UK breed in other European countries including: Finland, Norway, Sweden, Poland and Northern Germany. To protect our Curlews we must develop an understanding of the international picture and promote communication and collaboration.
The Eurasian Curlew is just the start, there are eight species of Curlew around the world. Curlew Action brings together conservationists from around the UK and Europe and is aiming to establish more far-reaching connections across the world to protect all Curlew species.
Outreach and Engagement
Curlew Action celebrates and raises awareness around Curlews worldwide. We give regular talks and hold events to promote Curlew conservation, such as our webinar series 'Conservation: lessons from the Curlew'. We also give talks about the importance of nature literacy and the power of hope in conservation.
Supporting Curlew Conservation
Curlew Action empowers people working in the field by providing resources and connecting them with expertise. For instance, we held a European Curlew Headstarting Workshop in February 2025 to bring together experts and people new to the practise from around Europe, with 100 sign-ups.
We have also helped Curlew Country to resource their groundbreaking fieldwork and headstarting project, and work with the Curlew Recovery Partnership (CRP) to supply high-quality training courses and videos. We devised the Curlew Fieldworker Toolkit, and in partnership with WWT made it an accessible online resource for anyone requiring information or advice on fieldwork.
(Photo by Yentl Nijs)
World Curlew Day
Mary Colwell established World Curlew Day in 2017, and Curlew Action now promotes this day every year with events and competitions.
It is a day to celebrate and raise awareness about Curlews across the globe and a fantastic opportunity to tell their stories. Curlews everywhere are in serious trouble but there are many creative ways to help them.
With our yearly World Curlew Day events and art and poetry competitions, we put the plight of the Curlew and the natural world at the forefront of people's minds.
Natural History Education
Mary Colwell, our Founder, has spearheaded the campaign for a GCSE in Natural History since 2011, which has now been confirmed by the department of education! The Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, and Tim Oates from the exam board OCR have been wonderful collaborators in pushing this through the right channels and getting us to this point. Everyone at Curlew Action would like to thank them for their support. Creating a nature-literate society that loves, understands and supports the wildlife of the UK is at the heart of what Curlew Action is about.
November 2015
British Birds paper: The Eurasian Curlew – the most pressing bird conservation priority in the UK? (Brown et al. 2015)
April 2016
Mary Colwell walks from the west coast of Ireland to the east coast of England, crossing the entire breadth of the British Isles, to highlight the issues facing our Curlew populations.
Everywhere the story is the same: Curlews are disappearing, especially on their breeding grounds. They face innumerable and often very different dangers depending on the area, including changing agricultural practices, wetland draining, increased predation, afforestation, climate change, and so much more.
November 2016 - Irish Curlew conference
Following Mary's walk, she organised a series of national conferences. The Irish conference produced the Curlew Task Force, which became the Curlew Conservation Programme
February 2017 - Southern England Curlew Conference
The Curlew Forum was established at this meeting – a coalition of southern, lowland Curlew groups that meet annually to share resources and experiences. It is a unique grouping and highly valued.
21st April 2017
Mary instigates the first ever World Curlew Day, celebrating Curlews across the world and bringing the stories of their plight to the public. Mary tells the story of Curlews in her book Curlew Moon, which combines her walk with conservation and the poetry, music and art inspired by them.
January 2018 - Welsh Curlew Conference
This produced Curlew Wales which has become established and organised with a Wales Action Plan.
March 2018 - Dartmoor Curlew Summit - Convened by then Prince Charles
September 2018 - Scottish Curlew Conference
Organised with Working for Waders. It resulted in an increase in the profile of Curlews in Scotland and a closer collaboration with their outreach, specifically through Patrick Laurie.
July 2019 - Downing Street Curlew summit
For the first time it brought in politicians and national agencies. The basis for the Curlew Recovery Partnership were laid down. Read the summary.
2020
February: Highgrove Curlew summit. March: Supported by Defra, Curlew Action and eight other prominent conservation organisations form the Curlew Recovery Partnership (CRP). Together with a wide network, they coordinate the fight to save the Curlew by influencing policy and connecting conservation work with best practice and funding.
2021
Singer-songwriter David Gray becomes Curlew Action’s first patron. The charity takes on a large number of ambassadors from all over the UK to promote Curlew Action's work in their own circles.
2022
On the 21st of April (World Curlew Day), the Natural History GCSE was confirmed! Curlew Action began our work to ensure the GCSE is a success. Unfortunately, this was later delayed for several reasons, being re-confirmed in early 2025, and expected to be in schools by the end of the decade
2024
Curlew Action holds its first in-person workshop for fieldworkers in King's Lynn, Norfolk, bringing over 100 fieldworkers, conservationists, farmers and policy-makers under one roof.
2025
Curlew Action holds an online European Curlew Headstarting Workshop, with 100 sign-ups and over 80 attendees to the live, 2-day event. The event is recorded and written up for anyone to learn from it at a later date. The event allows those experienced in and new to headstarting to collaborate and learn.