In 2016 and 2017 we had a brief spell working with the Powys Moorland Partnership monitoring their small Lapwing and Curlew breeding population. The above Curlew chick is the only one we ever managed to colour-ring there. It was ringed on 4th July 2017 near Ireland Moor by Jacques and myself after an epic stint trying to located it from a car some distance off. The main problem was it was highly mobile and every time we spotted it by the time we could run to where it was seen it had bunked off through a dense cover of bracken and hidden. Anyway patience and perseverance finally delivered and three years on we get the rewards of all the effort as it has just been re-sighted (and photographed) at Llangorse Lake by Mark Waldron.
Judging by the bill length it is almost certainly a female and she is likely heading inland to the very hills she was reared in to hopefully try and rear chicks of her own for the first time. Fingers crossed she succeeds, we need all the young Curlews we can get.
Such a wonderful story and a great message to spread as curlews has become so senstive to so many people who find their loss unbearable. Last week on St Davids Day in Hay a poem was read that had to be passed to someone else as the loss of the curlew makes people very emotional indeed. Crossing fingers that this one manages to breed successfully.
ReplyDeleteYesterday a friend saw a flock of over 50 Curlews on the Wye not far from Hay, presumably local(ish) breeders heading inland to nest. It is not too late to reverse their dramatic decline but if, as a society, we don't value them and do nothing it soon will be!
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