We are often asked about the challenges for breeding curlews and farmers on farmland and why farmers cannot just stop what they are doing. Farmland curlews have big territories and nest in different fields owned by different people year to year. Adults and broods wander over wide areas, moving frequently between different fields/landowners or managers. Agri-environment schemes are designed at the field-level and do not protect curlew chicks at the appropriate scale. Farmers have to choose between facing a loss of income or saving breeding curlew on their land.
To try and explain this better, Amanda Perkins has put together an explanation loosely based on an incident in Curlew Country during the 2024 season. It is not a simple situation on the ground or to describe and there are two versions of the presentation. The first shorter version is 16 minutes and the second longer version, which gives more detail about Curlews and Curlew Country, is about 40 minutes.