Curlew Summit, No. 10 Downing Street, 8th July, 2019 – Blog by Project Manager, Amanda Perkins In my last blog, I promised to write more about the Curlew Summit at No 10 Downing Street. We were still very active with seasonal activities at the time of the summit. Whilst not hot off the press, the […]
Curlew Summit, No. 10 Downing Street Read More »
Blog by Amber Bicheno, Project Assistant On Monday the 29th July, our 33 headstarted curlew were finally released into the wild. The day was many months in the making and changed frequently due to numerous factors out of our control. Originally, we hoped for 2, maybe even 3, releases of smaller batches of birds, as
Glamorous events – Habberley A snapshot of the Life of the Project Manager, Amanda Perkins This blog was started a few weeks ago but has taken until now to complete as ‘other events’ have intervened. Saturday 6th July It’s been a glamorous few days. On Saturday Billy Clapham, the fantastic young film-maker from Bristol, came
Now lambing season has come to an end; the ewes are all sheared, we’ve carried out all of the work on the lambs to prevent fly strike, worms and (some strains of) pneumonia; Many of the ‘spring’ calving cows have calved and grass harvest is around the corner, we seem to have a little time
Spring Farm Update – Guest Blog by Rhian Pinches Read More »
In 2017 and 2018 Curlew Country carried out headstarting of curlew, a first for the UK. In 2018, 21 chicks were successfully released at fledging stage, some of which have since been spotted on the south coast within larger flocks. The headstarting was carried out in house, on a shoe-string budget, after 2 years of
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Blog by Amber Bicheno, Project Assistant With summer (supposedly) in full swing, it is the busiest time of year for the Curlew Country Team. We’ve had 40 eggs collected from wild nests, and carefully incubated with help from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. It has been an amazing learning experience for me, to have these
Curlews, Chicks and Walking Sticks Read More »
Amanda Perkins, Project Manager Blog We would like to say a big thank you to Spring Watch for raising the plight of curlew and highlighting the curlew recovery work being undertaken by the small Curlew Country team. We are grateful too to Curlew Champion Mary Colwell Hector who put Billy Clapham, the film-maker, in touch
Curlew in the Media Read More »
Blog by Amanda Perkins, project manager. I worked on an estate on the island of Evia in Greece one summer many years ago. It was an eccentric place. Once I was in the garden of the main house, recuperating from a virus, when the mistress of the house flung open the shutters of her bedroom
In early May 2019, we invited a number of our volunteers to attend an evening about curlew nest finding. The aim was to help others to help us and to improve our chances of finding those outlying curlew pairs which remain elusive. Every year we are newly reminded of the struggle to find these nests,
Volunteer Training Day Read More »
We are now well into the nesting season, which is always later than many other curlew breeding areas, such as moorland, where there are already chicks present. Ornithologist Tony has been out relentlessly searching for curlew nests, and to date 23 different nests have been located. A proportion of these nests have had the eggs
After a rocky start to the year, with no certain funding secured to continue for the 2019 season, our efforts turned to crowdfunding in order to help us continue with our vital work. Securing funding has become increasingly difficult, with more and more organisations putting in bids to the same funding stream, whilst less money
Appeal and Funding Update Read More »
In an exciting turn of events, and another first for Curlew Country, one of the six headstarted chicks released in 2017 has been spotted back in Shropshire. In an exciting turn of events, and another first for Curlew Country, one of the six headstarted chicks released in 2017 has been spotted back in Shropshire. Ornithologist
Return of Headstarted Chick Read More »