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Curlews in Literature
Written by Charlotte Varela. Illustration by Jessica Holm. From lapwings in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights to the titular raven in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, birds have long acted as inspiration for literature. Some are used to evoke a sense of freedom and wildness while others are an ill-omen, foreshadowing tragedy. The curlew, however, has long evoked a […]
The Junior Curlew Network – engaging young people with curlew conservation
Written by Ellen Bradley. Engaging people with the nature around them is a cornerstone of conservation. Britain has a long history of studying our nature and is the home of many world-class naturalists including Charles Darwin, Jane Goodall and David Attenborough. Yet many of our young people seem totally removed from the wildlife in our […]
The critical situation of Curlews in the Iberian Peninsula
Written by Alba Villarroya. Due to its geographical position and variety of ecosystems, the Iberian Peninsula is a place of interest for the birds. In the wintering season, Spain and Portugal receive a large number of Curlew that rest and feed mainly in the humid areas of the north and west coasts. However, the situation […]
A Curlew Education
Written by Steph Smith. Please be gentle, this is my first “Blog” and I am completely out of my comfort zone!!!! My relationship with Curlews began early, through my dad. My dad, by his own admission was not the most academic of men, but he had taught me to skin a rabbit, catch and clean a […]
A Mural for Manchester’s Wildlife
Guest blog post: UK Youth For Nature. UK Youth for Nature is the UK’s leading youth-led network calling on the politicians & governments of the UK to take urgent action and tackle the loss of nature. We are commissioning a series of murals in cities and towns throughout the UK that speak to individuals throughout […]
A whistle on the wind
As spring blooms in a riot of bluebells, bright green buds and even brighter skies, it’s hard to miss the accompanying upswell of birdsong. But where the thrushes, Chiffchaffs and Robins get most of the attention, there is one very special bird that heralds the new season with a tune like no other. The Curlew […]
Embedding natural history into our own, and our children’s, education
Written by Alice Weaver. Let me start off by saying that this last two years have been great for connecting people with nature; although the pandemic has been terrible it has been a very steep learning curve to why we truly value the world around us. This valuation of nature should have been something instilled […]
On the edge: Curlews suffering from conifer plantations in Northern Ireland and beyond
Written by Dakota Reid, Curlew Action ambassador and Irish environmentalist. Healthy peatlands are few and far between in Northern Ireland. But despite restoration offering a huge range of carbon, biodiversity, flood prevention and water quality benefits, restoration rates have been painfully slow without proper government funding being allocated [author’s image]. As anyone who cares about […]
The Future for Curlews
Written by Ellie Martin, 2nd year BSc (Hons) Zoology student at Hartpury University Four years ago, the Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata) was deemed near threatened on the IUCN Red List (2017), and even then, populations were seen to be decreasing. It is hard to know the current status of Curlews due to a lack of recent […]
Curlew: Of mourning and hope
Written by Charlotte Varela. Photo credit: Tim Melling It’s hard to believe that, until relatively recently, I had never even heard of curlews. My love affair began with another love affair, 12 years ago, when I met my partner Matthew. He lived in the countryside and would take us on long nature walks across the […]