(Header photograph: Mary Colwell / All other photographs courtesy of Martin Hole) On a hot, dry, brown-brittle day in August, I visited Martin Hole of Montague Farm on the western edge of the Pevensey Levels in East Sussex. Over a coffee before a farm tour, we discussed farming for wildlife, and one phrase stayed with […]
Every Tool in the Box: Farming for Wildlife on the Pevensey Levels Read More »
Heading south from Insh Marshes, our Scottish tour next takes us to two grouse moors: the Rottal and Glenogil Estates. We visit them on consecutive days to learn more about how Curlews are faring on grouse moors in Scotland, a managed habitat which, in England, is known as one of their last strongholds. Our main takeaway from these two visits is that,
By Flo Blackbourn Heading south from Insh Marshes, our Scottish tour next takes us to two grouse moors: the Rottal and Glenogil Estates. We visit them on consecutive days to learn more about how Curlews are faring on grouse moors in Scotland, a managed habitat which, in England, is known as one of their last strongholds. Our main takeaway from these two
Southwest Scotland is one of those places where the challenges facing ground-nesting waders become vividly clear. Curlew, Lapwing, Redshank, Snipe and Oystercatcher still breed across these rolling hills and farmed valleys, but their future depends on navigating a web of farming practices, land management, predation, forestry, wind farms and economic pressures. Here, many competing demands are placed on
Protecting Wading Birds in Farmed Landscapes in Southwest Scotland Read More »
It was a pleasure to catch up with David Jarrett from the British Trust for Ornithology in Scotland and explore how his thinking has evolved since we last met more than two years ago. David combines scientific rigour with a genuine passion for Scotland’s uplands and wader populations. Thoughtful, analytical and always open to debate, he is helping to
The Future of Curlews – A Conversation with David Jarrett from the BTO Read More »
Curlews and Rewilding Few subjects in modern conservation generate as much passionate discussion as rewilding. It is a conversation that matters because it asks fundamental questions about how we restore nature, how much we intervene, and what kind of landscapes we want to leave for future generations. Recently, I received thoughtful and challenging comments about Curlew conservation and
A Visit to Insh Marshes If I were a Curlew, I’d choose here – as many do, listening to the calls echoing all around. Standing on a viewing point above the western end of the RSPB’s Insh Marshes reserve, Thijs Claes, Estate Operations Manager, and Colin MacLennan, RSPB volunteer, described their hopes for this remarkable landscape. The western end of the RSPB Insh Marshes The wide floodplain stretched away on either side of us,
It was the final full day of our Germany–Austria trip, and our one full day in Austria itself. Verena Rupprecht, who leads the LBV Telemetry for Meadow Birds project, kindly drove us for two hours from Munich Airport across the border into Austria, where we met BirdLife Austria’s Florian (Flo) Billinger at Ibmer Moor. This
Curlews Between the Runways Munich Airport has to be one of the strangest places I have ever visited to look for Curlews. Situated northeast of Munich between the cities of Freising and Erding, the airport occupies what was once a vast lowland peatland landscape, now heavily altered by drainage, intensive agriculture, urbanisation and modern infrastructure.
Initial Reflections Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall kept coming into my mind as we visited four more reserves for wading birds strung along the banks of the Danube and Isar. We had just left the affecting Wiesmet, described in the previous blog, and now stood on a rise overlooking the Stöcklwörth meadows and woodland, with
A group of us walked slowly through a field towards a dot marked on a map. We were so close but could see nothing. Was she still there? Then suddenly Jan pointed to a brown shape just a couple of metres away. Hidden, crouched low with her head and neck flattened to the ground, a
Having spent a few days in North Rhine-Westphalia and then a day in Lower Saxony, it was now time to head to the very north of Germany to see some Curlew (Numenius arquata) breeding sites there. We took a five-and-a-half-hour journey by train to northern Schleswig-Holstein to the village of Bergenhusen, the base of one
The Dümmer Special Protection Area (SPA) in Lower Saxony spans 12,000 acres and is one of the most important wetland landscapes for breeding waders in Germany and is heralded as the jewel in the crown for wader conservation. Here, we met Andrèas Barkow, project manager for the Life Godwit Flyway Project and Marcel Holly, head
Germany Field Visit 3 – Dümmer Lake, Lower Saxony Read More »
The area we visited in this large and heavily populated state in the west of German was once part of a vast peatland landscape stretching across the border between Germany and The Netherlands, (see the previous blog). Our base was the village of Zwillbrok on the Dutch border, guests of the Zwillbrock Biological Station. Thank you to everyone for being so kind and welcoming. It is difficult to imagine
In May 2026, Mary and Flo travelled to Germany and Austria to visit some of the country’s most important Curlew breeding landscapes and to meet the people working tirelessly to protect them. This trip is a continuation of Curlew Action’s outreach to our European colleagues, strengthening networks and information exchange across the continent and the
