Curlew Blog

It seems we are living in unprecedented times, with COVID-19 looming over all our shoulders waiting to strike when we least expect it. Like many others  during these trying times, I’ve been worrying about the effect it might have not directly on myself, but on my loved ones who are unlikely to withstand the pressure should […]

Here is Rhi Pinches early spring blog.  It contains farm and family life news together with an interview with her dad about his trip to the Curlew Summit at Highgrove with Project Manager, Amanda. Rhi is the new chair of the Curlew Country Farmers’ Facilitation Fund Group and we look forward to working with her

Eurasian Curlew – Numenius arquata Clearly a project by the name of Curlew Country is going to have a lot to say about curlew. But what is so special about the Eurasian Curlew and why do we think anybody should care? We thought it was time to provide a quick breakdown of why we think

During Mental Health awareness week, our regular farm blogger, Rhian Pinches, sent a heartfelt blog on the issues facing farmers.  It got trapped in the system somewhere, so it is a little late.    Rhian mentions that she is expecting a new baby and we are delighted to announce the arrival of baby Hattie on 19th October weighing

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

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

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

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

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