Hope for endangered British bird as head-started young fly the nest

And finally for Tuesday some good news.

Hope for endangered British bird as head-started young fly the nest - British Trust for Ornithology

a curlew - a brown speckled bird with a long curved bill - in tall grass, colour rings are just visible on its long legs, a second indivudal can just be made out through the grass. — Tagged curlew (photo: Les Bunyan)

The fortunes of 37 young Curlews, rescued as eggs from RAF airfields and reared in captivity, are being followed by scientists from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO).

These birds were released on the Norfolk coast over the last few weeks as part of an attempt to boost internationally important UK Curlew population.

Thirty individuals have been fitted with tags that will allow BTO researchers to track them as they begin to make their way in the world.

The UK is home to around 25% of the global Curlew population, but numbers here crashed by almost half between 1995 and 2018. Poor breeding success is responsible for much of this decline, but BTO has been working with colleagues from Natural England, Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, the RAF, WWT, the Sandringham Estate and Wild Ken Hill on an innovative project to support recovery of Curlew populations in Eastern England. Curlew eggs laid on RAF airfields would ordinarily be destroyed to mitigate risk to aircraft but, since last year, a number have been collected, incubated and the young raised in captivity. These ‘head-started’ birds are then released in ideal habitat along the Norfolk coast before they disperse further afield.

BTO scientists are responsible for fitting the young Curlew with a mixture of radio and GPS tags, and then tracking them after release. The first of this year’s tagged birds to migrate away from the Norfolk coast was released at the Sandringham Estate and departed at sunset (just like a wild-reared Curlew would) on 24 August, arriving on a Staffordshire field at sunrise the next day. It then flew towards Ireland and made a perilous trip out into the Atlantic before thinking better of it and returning to dry land close to Wexford.

All the ‘head-started’ Curlew are also fitted with individually numbered bright-yellow ‘leg-flags’ that allow them to be identified from a distance. Anyone can help us keep track of what these brilliant birds are up to by reporting sightings at bit.ly/HS-curlew.