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 Action's director, Mary Colwell, and kindly hosted by the Pike family at Northney Farm on Hayling Island, Hampshire. While the main topic was the 2024 breeding season, it was also an excellent opportunity to share the latest news and thoughts on best practices for assisting Curlews.
Hayling Island, sandwiched between Langstone Harbour to the West and Chichester Harbour to the East, together with the wider Solent, is a unique habitat sitting in the centre of one of the most important wintering areas for the Eurasian Curlew, with up to ten per cent of the UK and two per cent of the world's population.
Not to be outdone by the Curlew, the area is, astonishingly, the wintering home of around ten per cent of the world's Brent Geese. Northney Farm on the Northwest tip of the island manages a beautiful pedigree herd of Ayrshire cows accompanied by Little Egrets and the ever-increasing number of Cattle Egrets.
Pete Potts began the discussion with his local knowledge of working in ornithology, ringing, and birdwatching for nearly 50 years and stressed how important this area is for wintering Curlews. Three key points stood out:
- The Solent area, including Hayling Island, Portsea Island, and Chichester Harbour, has suffered huge wetland, mudflat, and salt marsh losses over the last 50 years. Pete showed maps showing how much has been drained, converted to agriculture, and developed for housing, roads, and industry, as well as how much the local towns and cities have grown. The birds that use this part of Southern England are increasingly left with a decreasing number of small fragments of suitable wintering habitat, most of which are under constant threat. The number of wintering Curlew has fallen from over 3,000 in the 1960s to under 1,500 today. He raised the interesting point that if we succeed in recovering Curlew breeding populations, the areas they will need for wintering are quickly being destroyed.
- Finding solutions for this threatened bird is a national and international concern, considering the mix of populations here during the winter. Many of the wintering Curlews are from Scandinavia and northern Europe.
- As the winter progresses, the birds tend to move further inland to farmland and even quite small paddocks. This puts them on a collision course with further development, increased disturbance (walkers and dogs), grassland management, and crop rotation.
Like their fidelity to breeding sites, Curlews are also faithful to their wintering sites, and birds have been recorded here from as far as Finland, Germany, Netherlands, and Poland, together with local pairs from the New Forest. The oldest known bird is at least 32 years from the New Forest, and, if re-recorded this year, will make her the oldest known Eurasian Curlew.
Tristan Norton, a Principal Ecologist for Hampshire Borough Council, discussed how the Council works together with local planning to understand wildlife impacts. He referenced the Solent Waders and Brent Goose Strategy, a partnership project aimed at understanding how these two sets of birds use this important area. Tristan also stressed the importance of understanding the role of Functionally Linked Land which requires areas outside specifically protected sites that are useful to species which might be impacted by developments; planners must take these into account.
Tristan made a plea for more data, particularly from local birdwatchers, asking them to observe fields over a whole day, not just for a snapshot of time. Planners need to know how the fields that are marginal and often not obviously species rich, are used for feeding and roosting by geese and waders over 24 hours. Unlike in the breeding season where territories are held, the wintering sites are often temporary and visited on a rotational basis, which is not well understood. To consider the needs of birds in relation to the many other pressures on the small fragments of land left, a deeper understanding of their importance is essential. Planners must also take into consideration the needs of people, dog walkers, renewable energy projects, housing developments, roads, industry and other activities. Thankfully, due to a successful partnership with local conservation groups, the council is gaining insight, but more needs to be done. The council's refreshing understanding of the need for permanent refuges could be reflected in other parts of the country.
Mary Colwell then gave a UK round-up for the breeding season 2024. In addition to the usual challenges of nest and chick predation, 2024 was also impacted by the very cold and wet spring. Flooding delayed nesting, and even where possible, a lack of insects persisted with the cold weather, especially in the West Country.
Herefordshire and Worcestershire recorded zero-fledged chicks, with Severn and Avon potentially only three. In the Uplands, ticks were a problem. There was one bright spot in the Brecks, perhaps because the weather increased vegetation cover which allowed chicks to hide and feed.
Suzannah Bleakley gave an update for the Southern Lake District centred around Kendall, where there was good news: with perhaps 18 – 20 chicks fledged. The overwhelming success factors have a foundation in excellent partnership with local farmers regarding nest disturbance by farm machinery and very targeted Fox and Crow control specific to known nest vicinities.
There were two lessons to be learned:
- Place fences around nests immediately upon discovery, and do not wait until the clutch is complete. Delays often resulted in predation before the clutch was completed.
- However, delay camera positioning until the clutch is complete.
An interesting conversation followed about a prototype real-time audio sensory device that can send Curlew calls directly to your mobile device. This could help protect nests from predators and make it easier to identify occupied territories. Further investment is required; this need not be limited to Curlews. A presentation of the South Lakes project was made during Curlew Action’s webinar on the UK breeding season (below).
Leo Smith from the Shropshire Ornithological Society gave an update for his area. Unfortunately, out of around 100 known nests, despite 44 being fenced, only seven to eight chicks were thought to have fledged. Based on current trends, Leo suggested Curlews could be extinct as a breeding species in Shropshire by 2048.
There followed a discussion between Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and Leo about artificially high Fox numbers due to the number of game-reared birds (Pheasants and Partridges). GWCT said they are working on a paper on Fox abundance based on potential anthropogenic causes by analysing stomach contents. As yet, there is no conclusive evidence linking fox abundance to available game, though work is in progress.
Ryan Burrell then spoke about the latest work he is conducting on behalf of the Curlew Recovery Partnership (CRP) in pushing DEFRA for policies on:
- Agri-schemes – grassland management suitable for Curlew, specifically in meadow/silage areas.
- Predator control and mitigation
- Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL), which is due to end in March. This supplement to ELMs in nature-rich areas has worked well, providing projects with extra funding to help compensate farmers for the loss of crops and hardware like fencing. Is there anything to replace FiPL? It seems not at the moment.
There is a certain hiatus with the new Government and Mary and Ryan are trying various approaches to meet with ministers. There is also a Structured Decision-Making Workshop on predator control in the New Year which will help decide on priorities for action. Leo Smith suggested working with Local Nature Recovery Strategy, while this work continues.
Ryan also emphasised that it is unlikely that ElLM will ever provide all that Curlew needs. Much more likely is that landscape-scale changes will happen through a combination of activities that include ELMs, initiatives such as Farmer Clusters, FiPL (if continuing), local groups and volunteers, NGO land, etc. It will be a pick-and-mix approach, taking what is available and suitable for the local area.
Helmut Kruckenburg then gave an update on the breeding season in Germany (and see below for Curlew Action's 2024 Europe Breeding Season webinar), which has three main centres: Bavaria, Rhine, and Lower Saxony. Most of the breeding takes place in the Northwestern lowlands of Lower Saxony. The overall picture is an estimated 1,000 breeding pairs nationwide, down by 50 per cent since 1985.
Helmut presented some interesting data on Curlew abundance related to water height on grassland and the increased feeding activity beside ditches, which he saw as food reservoirs compared to heavily cut fields. He saw the main challenges in Germany to breeding success as:
- Replacement of grass with maize
- Predation
- Decrease in water table
He also presented detailed work on tracking adult birds in the breeding season to show how they used areas for nesting and feeding. Many fly ten kilometres or more from the nest at night to roost by water, supporting the above mentioned point. Also, birds that are hefted to a particular area are better at dealing with new wind farm developments and fly at a height to avoid them, as opposed to newcomers who are much more likely to have accidents.
Mary then closed the meeting before everyone went to see the wintering Curlews and other waders where the farm meets the harbour. She re-emphasised how the Solent is a great example of the bigger picture where we must look at the Eurasian Curlew holistically as a European bird.
It was suggested that Curlew Action could organise these meetings going forward and provide updates through the Curlew Action website. The Forum will not change in character, but Curlew Action take on the role of managing the annual meeting.
And our thanks again to our hosts at Northney Farm.