Cumbrian volunteers have set up a community group alongside local farmers to ensure that an endangered bird is properly protected.
The rapid decline and potential extinction of the iconic curlew, (now on the Red List on the UK Conservation Status Report), has prompted a group of residents and farmers in the Lorton Valley, to launch The Melbreak Curlew Recovery Project, as part of The Melbreak Communities initiative.
The UK has a big role to play in shaping curlew conservation, because we support important breeding and overwintering populations.
The curlew has undergone a 30 per cent population crash in the last decade due to a number of reasons including predation by generalist predators and loss of habitat for breeding and rearing young.
A grant from Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) and advice and training from the South Lakes Curlew Recovery Project, enabled the group to purchase and effectively use the equipment required.
With the help and co-operation of local farmers, volunteers and a dedicated fencing team, four curlew nests were identified, protected from predators, and monitored.
Eleven chicks were successfully hatched and later carefully ringed by a local expert from The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).
David Gardiner, of Melbreak Curlew Recovery Project, said: "We are thrilled to have been able to protect some of these beautiful, endangered and vulnerable ground-nesting birds. We look forward to building on our success, so that the haunting spring call of the curlew will be heard for generations to come."
Tim Newton, a local farmer on whose land a curlew nest was protected, said: “I am delighted to be part of this important project and hope we hear many more curlews in the valleys in the future."
For further information about the Melbreak Curlew Recovery Project, or if you would like to be involved, please contact David Gardiner, davidj.gardiner@btinternet.com, visit the melbreak community website, or talk to representatives at the Loweswater Show on Sunday September 1.
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