RSPB Curlew LIFE project and the North West Birdwatching Festival

A photo of a groups of people sat in a room. At the front of the room a presentation is being shown

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 Geltsdale in Northern England, Glenwherry on the Antrim Plateau and Lough Erne and surrounding lowlands in Northern Ireland, farmland in Conwy in North Wales, and RSPB Insh Marshes in Scotland. The aim of the LIFE project was to test and trial interventions that could help stabilise our drastically declining Curlew populations, and to see if lessons could be learned for the wider landscape.

In each LIFE area Curlew conservationists worked with farmers, gamekeepers, volunteers and land managers. As Suzannah Rocket wrote:

“The project has deployed a mix of conservation solutions, with hands-on efforts such as nest protection fences, habitat restoration and predator management creating the conditions needed to give Curlew the best chance of success. For example, wet habitat features such as good quality peatland have proved vital for Curlew as they favour boggy, rushy areas to breed, while vegetation management through cutting and grazing has allowed for young chicks to remain camouflaged and feed amongst the right mix of taller vegetation. These habitat interventions can also benefit a host of other threatened species such as Snipe, Redshank and Lapwing.”

The first part of the day was dedicated to talks and panel discussions on predator control and habitat management. Predator management played a leading role in the success of the project in Glenwherry in particular, where there has been the most marked success. RSPB NI’s Conservation Officer for the Antrim Plateau, Katie Gibb, said:

“Over the course of the Curlew LIFE project, we’ve seen 202 chicks fledge, some of which have already started to return to the breeding population, resulting in a 40% increase in pairs in just one year. This is an incredible improvement compared to the 116 fledglings recorded between 2011 and 2020. It gives us real hope, allowing us to shift our focus from preventing extinction to managing a recovering population.”

The level of control at Glenwherry was significant, not far off grouse moor levels, and the work with farmers was very successful. Habitat was managed to help with both nesting and chick feeding and farmers did not lose out financially. Farmland was rewetted and ill-sited conifer plantations were removed. Both lethal control and predator fencing were used. Additionally, radio tagging showed how Curlews use the landscape and this guided were to target habitat improvements. It was a holistic and well-run project.

The big question is how to replicate this Curlew-friendly management across a wider area. This level of success is hugely welcome in Northern Ireland, which has seen an 80% decline in Curlews since the 1980s, but can it be a template for general Curlew recovery? It is a big ask. There must be buy-in from farmers, landowners and the wider community, it requires a great deal of manual labour, and professional predator control is expensive. Farmers also need to know they won’t lose out financially, but as it stands, agri-environment payments for helping ground-nesting birds like Curlews don’t compete with other ways of managing the land. In that way not much has changed since I visited Glenwherry in 2016 on my Curlew Walk. I visited a farmer called Sam and I described the encounter in my book, Curlew Moon:

“I ask about subsidies available for combining farming with wildlife conservation; is enough money being made available? Sam’s answer is a first warning shot across the bow, and I will hear many like it over the coming weeks. Wildlife is good to have, but it has to pay its way. Without help from agri-environment schemes, farmers wouldn’t be able to prioritise curlews, lapwings, or anything else that requires taking land out of intensive production. There is too much pressure to increase yields and too many costs to meet. Curlews are not seen as a pest species, they are not unwelcome, but their needs cannot be met without financial help. In other words, wildlife has to pay rent on land that is no longer theirs.”

This sentiment was echoed by John McElroy, a farmer in Lower Lough Erne, who gave a talk to the meeting from a farmer’s perspective. There is no animosity towards Curlews, or any other benign wildlife, but helping them has to be cost effective.

Talking to RSPB scientist David Douglas during a coffee break, I asked him why, if LIFE has shown us what to do, can’t we just spend the next phase making sure we get the right legislation in place. His answer was surprising, he said we don’t really know everything, the Glenwherry success wasn’t replicated elsewhere, despite the same methods. He suggested we are still missing some pieces of the jigsaw to get a full picture to understand other pressures, probably a combination of climate change, the decline in insects and why there are so many meso-predators in the UK. The relationship between these issues and Curlew is not fully understood.

I raised the thorny issue of whether the large number of game birds (pheasants and partridges) released into the countryside each year in many parts of the UK are feeding generalists predators like foxes and crows, and keeping numbers high. Surely this is increasing the pressure on Curlew and other ground-nesting birds? The analysis of the LIFE project didn’t show a simple correlation between game bird release, landscape and high numbers of predators, although they haven’t finished the fine detail yet. It was agreed it may be a local issue, but more research is needed to unpick this contentious practice to work out if the game birds are an easy meal throughout the year. It was a subject raised by Professor Ian Newton in his summing up speech at the end of the day. Ian believes it is a problem as only one third of the 55 million birds released are shot, the others spread into the wider countryside and many end up as easy to eat roadkill. But we have yet to see definitive data. However, David did agree that we can’t wait for all the answers, the birds simply don’t have the luxury of time on their side.

The afternoon was given to workshops on a variety of subjects: Headstarting, Engaging the Community, Volunteer-led Conservation and Working with Farmers. I joined the community group, which was very interesting. I love what Denbighshire Council have done – put a photo of a Curlew on the side of their bin lorries!

A photo of a Curlew photo on a bin lorry.
Curlew photo on a bin lorry. (Photo by Mike Pollard)

It was agreed that community engagement is vital to success, but usually receives the least funding and support. Schools’ projects and visits were highlighted as particularly effective. Not only do children readily engage but they also take the message home and the plight of Curlews spreads into the community. It was heartening to hear this; it is what Curlew Action is about – telling the Curlew’s story to inspire action and to promote the uptake of nature education in schools.

One final talk addressed the growing concern over ecological grief and burn-out, something we covered in the Curlew Action European Curlew Fieldworkers Workshop in February. It is a subject we will return to many times, I fear.

One of the outcomes of the Curlew LIFE project was the instigation of a UK Curlew Action Plan, which is being written at the moment. Action Plans hold governments to account, and I will report back on that when a draft is ready to view.

North West Birdwatching Festival, WWT Martin Mere

A photo of man and a woman standing at the Curlew Action stand.
Mike Smart and Mary Colwell on the Curlew Action stall at the North West Birdwatching Festival at WWT Martin Mere.

Over a windy weekend (18-19th October), Mike Smart and I joined the North West Birdwatching Festival at WWT Martin Mere in Lancashire. Visitors were treated to a range of inspiring speakers (including Nick Baker, George McGavin and Gillian Burke), bird walks and a variety of stalls. I gave two talks, one on Curlews and one on nature education, but the value of these events is the chats we have at the Curlew Action stall.

A local weekend cycling group call themselves ‘The Curlews’ because they often stop on the moors to listen to them in the spring and summer months – we await a photo of said cyclists! A man from a sea-watching group in Blackpool told us they often see both Curlew and Whimbrel flying past on migration and offered to share Curlew Action’s website on their joint WhatsApp.

A keen birdwatcher who is soon to retire mentioned he would love to do more to help Curlews, and asked if we know of anyone or any group working in the Lune Valley area of Lancashire, a beautiful place the poet Thomas Gray described as possessing , “every feature which constitutes a perfect landscape.” Can any Lancastrians help?

We were heartened to hear how many people mentioned our monthly webinar series, which is growing in popularity. There was interest in our partnership with our ambassador and patron, David Gray, and our T-shirts and socks were as popular as ever. They make great Christmas presents!

Annie Shadrake called by to tell us that the Yorkshire Dales are thinking of holding another Curlew event this year and they will keep in touch. Thank you, Annie, who is a Curlew volunteer with the BTO and also raises awareness about neuro divergency.

After the day’s events on Saturday, we went to a hide to watch the incredible spectacle of thousands of Pink-footed Geese flying in to roost by a lake, they had recently arrived from Iceland. There are very few sights to rival this.

A photo of bird silhouettes against a blue sky at sunset.
Pink-footed Geese flying into roost at WWT Martin Mere. (Photo by Mary Colwell)

They joined whooper swans, ducks and Lapwings, it is a calming and wondrous sight to see. Then, the icing on the cake, on the Sunday morning we stopped to watch Whooper Swans and Cattle Egrets feeding together in a flooded stubble field, right by the road. I really do love winter.

Thank you to everyone who came to see the talks and chat to us on the stall, despite Storm Ashley.

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