Blog Posts from Curlew Action
I recently watched Sir Gareth Southgate deliver his moving and emotionally intelligent 2025 Dimbleby lecture. Deliver is a good term, it was presented to us with care and thoughtfulness as though passing on something special. What an extraordinary leader he is. The main message is that young men are hurting, they are suffering from “lack […]
Over two days in early February, Curlew Action brought together projects from across England and Europe to discuss the increasingly hot topic of headstarting European Curlews. 100 people attended, which is a testament to how important people see this technique as essential to Curlew survival. Day 1 was dedicated to explaining the role of headstarting […]
Every year, we run competitions for World Curlew Day, and this year is no exception, with the return of our poetry, art, and baking competitions! Open to all ages and abilities, we love to receive entries from anyone who finds Curlews an inspiration to create. Winners of each competition will receive a Luke Western Curlew […]
In celebration of World Wetlands Day (2 February), David Gray and the Curlew Action team share their favourite UK wetlands: Holme Dunes National Nature Reserve, Norfolk Chosen by: David Gray, Patron of Curlew Action I’ve been a regular visitor to the North Norfolk Coast for the last 30 years, so if I had to pick […]
After five years, Roger Morgan-Grenville is handing over the reins as Chair of the Trustees. A huge thank you from the team, of course, but also a personal message of gratitude from me for five years of friendship, fun and sharing burdens. Roger was there from the earliest days of Curlew Action, a stalwart and […]
Curlew Action is five years old on December 31st. Our founding mantra was expressed by the Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum in 1968: “We will conserve what we love; we will only love what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught.” Figure 1 Mary giving a talk for the conclusion of the […]
The Curlew Forum is a collection of Eurasian Curlew conservation bodies based in lowland (as opposed to the uplands) and Southern Britain. These are the targeted areas most at risk from further decline, principally because not enough Curlews are successfully fledging chicks and the populations are in constant decline. The meeting was chaired by Curlew […]
A paper published today, Monday 18th November, confirms the global extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew (Numenius tenuirostris). A close relation of the Eurasian Curlew (N. arquata), the last reliable sighting of the Slender-billed Curlew was in Morocco in February 1995, despite dedicated searches by ornithologists. The new paper is a collaboration between scientists from the […]
The Curlew conservation project in Poland was launched in 2013 and continues to this day. The reason for its initiation was the dramatic decline in the population. Over the course of two to three decades, the number of Curlews declined by more than half, from around 650-700 breeding pairs (before 2000) to approximately 250-300 (2008-2012). […]
We are looking for Curlew Action’s official sign to encourage people not to disturb wintering waders. The UK’s coastline plays host to 150,000 Curlew from across Europe during the winter months. Protecting them from disturbance is vital to allow them to survive the harsh winter months. Read more in our recent blog post. How to […]
This is the second of two blog posts about the IWSG conference, read the first post by Mike Smart. When do we reach the tipping point beyond which there is no option but to act with urgency, determination and vision? From the statistics we are already there, and have been for some time, but on […]
On the 9th October I attended a day of talks and discussions in the Manor House Country Hotel near Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, organised by the EU-funded RSPB Curlew LIFE project. This was an ambitious undertaking over 4 years which focused on turning things around for Curlews in five important areas: Hadrian’s Wall and RSPB […]