Blog Posts from Curlew Action
This is the first of two blog posts from Curlew Action’s visit to Belgium. Read the second one – with further thoughts from Mary on Belgian and European Curlews. Meet Griet Nijs, a Curlew hero. She works for the conservation organisation Natuurpunt, the largest environmental charity in Belgium. Curlews are Griet’s passion, and she works […]
This is the second of two blog posts on Curlew Action’s visit to Poland, read Mary’s reflections in this blog post. The first link with Polish Curlew workers was established when a Curlew colour-ringed on the Usk estuary in Wales in January 2016 was resighted in Poland from 19 to 26 April 2018 in one […]
This is the first of two blog posts on Curlew Action’s visit to Poland. Read Mike Smart’s blog post. A warm wind blew across a very large field in Eastern Poland, it was mid-April and uncharacteristically mild. In the distance a farmer ploughed one small area, his engine a grating background to the music of […]
Did you know that 21 April is World Curlew Day! Isn’t there a day for everything? Why then does y gylfinir deserve a special day’? As is frequently the case the standard Welsh term for the Curlew – y gylfinir – describes Britain’s largest wading bird perfectly: gylfin = bill, hir = long! It’s difficult […]
In 2024, we are being joined by three guest judges for our World Curlew Day Competition! Each guest judge will assist Mary Colwell in choosing the winning entries from a category. Meet the World Curlew Day judges: Head judge: Mary Colwell Mary is a writer, TV and radio producer and conservationist, whose massive walk across […]
Farlington Marshes Nature Reserve sits within Langstone Harbour, down on the busy south coast of Hampshire. Managed by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust since the 1960s, it forms one of the most important sites in the Solent for overwintering waders and wildfowl, as well as providing a very important role for local breeding […]
I am intrigued by Lucy McRobert’s article for the Birdwatch magazine, ‘Missed Connections‘ (18/01/24). She describes University Challenge panellists being baffled by even the simplest nature questions, and astonished they had never heard of wading birds. Some of the brightest in the land know nothing about the common life that lives around them. No wonder, […]
As we say goodbye to 2023 it’s a good time to look back on the Eurasian Curlew breeding season and search for signs of optimism or despair! This summary is largely based upon results presented at the recent Curlew Forum meeting at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) Slimbridge Wetland Centre on 16 Nov 2023, […]
We are increasingly coming round to the fact that the future of every one of us depends on a healthy natural world with functional and diverse ecosystems supporting our economy, health and well-being. This much is true, but are we succeeding in making that nature-secure future a reality? Is everyone aware of what this really […]
People who love waders, like the birds themselves, flock together in the autumn at the annual conference of the International Wader Study Group (IWSG). The range of attendees mirrored the diversity of wading birds scattered across the mudflats surrounding the island of Sylt off the northern coast of Germany, where the meeting was held. I […]
A recent scientific paper published in eLife suggest that the loss of huge mammals at the end of the last Ice Age, grazers such as Giant Elks and Woolly Mammoths, would have had a significant impact on the landscapes on which they had lived and on birds like curlews, which thrived on the open ground. […]
In the eighth of her ’21 Wildlife Walks’, Mya Bambrick visited the Severn and Avon Vales to learn more about the Eurasian Curlew and its conservation – including walking with Curlew Action Founder and Director Mary Colwell, and Curlew Action Trustee Mike Smart. She also met up with Daniel Gornall, Research Officer at the Wildfowl […]