On 10th July 2021 Pierre Leon photographed Curlew Yellow ZB on the shore of Plage du Vogue, Guisseny, France. This bird was caught and ringed in the breeding season at one of the Curlew Country breeding territories using a whoosh net and decoy. This is highly significant as it provides yet more confirmation that some of our breeding Curlews winter in, or pass through, France, where, until recently Curlew was still a legal quarry species and where as recently as 2019 there was an intention to set a 'sustainable' harvest limit of 6,000 birds! Thankfully, due to widespread international outcry, the decision was amended and the bag limit was set to zero for the 2019/2020 hunting season. Hopefully, international pressure will continue and those birds from our rapidly declining breeding population that choose to move to France for the winter can do so in relative safety.
Yellow ZB either wintering or staging at Guisseny in northern France in mid-July just over 450 kms from Shropshire where he had attempted (and presumably failed) to breed.
