The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Wildlife => Topic started by: in the hills on May 20, 2020, 12:09:49 pm
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My daughter is hoping to study Ecology at university in September.
She has a real 'thing' for the Curlew and hopes in the future to become involved in their conservation.
And so ...... a really open post to ask for your thoughts on the Curlew.
Where are you based?
Do you hear them?
Do you see them?
Do they nest successfully near you?
How have their numbers changed in your area?
If they've declined .... Why do you thing this is? What are the contributing factors do you think? Predators? Land use? Farm management? Leisure activities?
What do we need to do to help them keep going?
Thanks ........
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Where are you based? 200m up a hill near Stirling
Do you hear them? Yes
Do you see them? Occasionally
Do they nest successfully near you? Don't know
How have their numbers changed in your area? Don't know
If they've declined .... Why do you thing this is? What are the contributing factors do you think? Predators? Land use? Farm management? Leisure activities?
What do we need to do to help them keep going? Don't know, but if there was anything we could do to encourage them, we absolutely would!
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We live at 1000' in Southern Scotland, in an area of mixed farming, high on grazing livestock, and increasing Xmas tree plantations.
25 years ago when we first came to live here, there were always a couple of pairs of curlew, and we saw and heard them every day in their season. They nested in the open fields around us.
For the past few years, we have rarely heard the curlew, sometimes when they first arrive, but they don't stay.
A couple of years ago, a pair was seen to be nesting about a mile away in a field destined for hay. One day, my husband saw the owner rolling the grass, with desperate curlews trying to stop the tractor by diving and threatening - to no avail of course. The nest was crushed, after a few days the curlew pair left. We heard them earlier this spring, but not more recently.
That nest was definitely destroyed by 'farming methods' ie rolling the grass crop after the curlew had nested. There are other activities which may damage nests such as spraying.
Being ground nesting birds, of course their nests are subject to predation from foxes, badgers, corvids etc, but that has always been the case. What seems to be the cause of falling numbers and an increase in failed nests is the changes in timings of farming practices, also perhaps the use of giant machinery. In the past, the tractor driver was not high up and often had an open cab, so could see ahead to notice ground nests and avoid them. Birds such as curlew, oystercatchers, whaups, larks and yellow hammers all nest on the ground and are suffering decreasing populations.
I saw a proggie somewhere about saving the curlew and it involved the education of farmers to understand that these birds are seriously at risk. For many people working the land, curlews are part and parcel of the sounds they hear, and perhaps they have not noticed decreasing numbers. Just to get the message out there is a good start. For this programme, an active curlew nest was identified and posts hammered in to mark it, so tractor workings could avoid it. Very simple. Then for timings, the nest could be observed so that once the hatchlings were on the move, the crop could be left undisturbed for a while, or cultivations carried out in such a way that the birds could avoid the machinery.
There is a lot of goodwill out there, so most landowners would probably be co-operative if approached in the right way, but some legislation about the timings of cultivations might help too.
All best wishes to your daughter - she has a wonderful ambition :trophy:
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Thank you both.
We are at about 800 ft in Mid Wales ..... sheep country and some cattle.
We hear the Curlew infrequently here from early spring through to the autumn. This year we heard them on one occasion during the winter months too. We love their call.
We've been asking neighbours who have always lived here and are now in their 70s and 80s about their memories of the curlew. Apparently they were very common and heard constantly when they were children and young adults. They've told us the best places to try and spot them and we got up at 4 inthe morning ada few daysadays and went in search. We were so lucky and at about 6 am spotted a pair flying over the hillside right where we had been told to look. My daughter was so excited!
We've been following a conservation project called ..... CurlewCountry. They are based on the Shropshire/Marches border. They have a webpage if anyone is interested and also a FB page. There is a live webcam of curlews on their nest. Interesting blog page too.
Our neighbours feel that the decline here is due to the more intensive nature of the hill grazing these days and changing methods eg. Land drainage, no ploughing
Also that an unchecked badger population has devastated ground nesting birds.
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So many country-side sounds to enjoy:
the lowing of cattle the bleating of sheep the screes of buzzard and peregrine and the bark of a fox with collared doves and wood pigeons making their mark while chickens chook as they scratch and male blackbirds screech as they fight the new honking of ravens all over the land the thin peel of swallows as they swoop and turn, but none to match the thrill of hearing a curlew call.
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This is a link to the curlew cam:
https://curlewcountry.org/curlew-cam-2019/ (https://curlewcountry.org/curlew-cam-2019/)
Do you know [member=24384]in the hills[/member] what stage of incubation she is at, and when the eggs are expected to hatch? I watch the Ospreys at Loch Arkaig, and sometimes peregrines on various cathedrals, and it's wonderful now to be able to watch a beautiful curlew on her four eggs. Thank you for that - I shall donate to help with the work of the group.
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Thank you for putting the link there FW.
I've asked the question on their FB page for you. I'll let you know when they reply. They are beautiful aren't they?
If you contact CurlewCountry they will add you to their mailing list if you are interested ..... email.
We've been added recently and we're looking forward to updates.
There is a webcam following some of our Welsh ospreys if you fancy a bit more osprey action ..... Dyfi Ospreys.
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I like that arobwk!
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This is a link to the curlew cam:
https://curlewcountry.org/curlew-cam-2019/ (https://curlewcountry.org/curlew-cam-2019/)
She (or he) is trying hard not to snooze right now !! :)
[Do the males share the incubation ?]
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25ft above sea level, flat land in the Vale of York.
Hear them every day
See them everyday
Yes they nest near here and manage to rear young.
Numbers seem to remain the static.
Farmland, currently cultivated grassland and some old pasture land.
This year the biggest problem for them has been dogs getting walked over the fields off lead. Normal years the biggest predator of them are the badgers.
Best way to protect them is not to tell anyone where they are.
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We are about 15mtrs above sea level, I can see the sea from the window of our remote Shetland crofthouse which is mostly old pasture.
I see and hear them every day, and their numbers are quite static but plenty. Lots of breeding pairs on our croftland, which is only accessed by sheep, the odd cat and other wildlife e.g. otters, polecats, blackbacks, ravens, crows etc.
I would say they are successfully breeding but prone to predation from the big birds - as I've observed the ravens and big gulls harassing parents near the nest site. I've never counted them though - they are called Whurp in Shetland.
We also have lots of Whimbrels.
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Thank you for putting the link there FW.
I've asked the question on their FB page for you. I'll let you know when they reply. They are beautiful aren't they?
If you contact CurlewCountry they will add you to their mailing list if you are interested ..... email.
We've been added recently and we're looking forward to updates.
There is a webcam following some of our Welsh ospreys if you fancy a bit more osprey action ..... Dyfi Ospreys.
That's me signed up for the email info, thanks. And thanks too for asking the FB question - I don't do FB and when I've tried I can't quite see how it works :dunce:
I already visit the Dyfi ospreys every few days, their camera, that is. I love it when a train goes past! I was recently watching a programme about that rail route (Hubby is a chuffy-train fan ::)), although I didn't realise that's what I was watching, until suddenly I recognised the view from the osprey cam! Fun to see it from outside.
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I just checked the curlewcam at after midnight, and she's wide awake looking around for predators. How stressful! And how different to hens which go into a little trance when they're sitting.
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Where are you based? Pennines, 1000ft
Do you hear them? Yes
Do you see them? - yes
Do they nest successfully near you? - I think so
How have their numbers changed in your area? Not sure
If they've declined .... Why do you thing this is? What are the contributing factors do you think? Predators + Leisure activities
What do we need to do to help them keep going? - Control predators, Inc crows, foxes. Get through to idiot dog walkers to keep their dogs near them, and not run loose round nesting grounds.
As an aside, recently bawled someone out for their lab running about a known nesting site, he was nearly 300mtrs away, luckily wind was behind me, he got the dog and walked away.
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Arobwk ..... We have been doing quite a lot of research and it would seem that, yes, both parents take a turn in the incubation of the eggs.
Apparently you can see them swap over sometimes on the webcam.
I'm no good at attaching links on here but on the website for CurlewCountry there is a guide to observing curlew. It's fascinating. It shows for example the adult curlew trying to persuade sheep to move away from their nest site. Annoying them basically so that they follow them in the other direction. It shows the swap over of the male and female on the best. Mating behaviour and so on.
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Hi Fleece wife. :wave:
CurlewCountry have replied and they think that the eggs are due to hatch during the first week of June. Let's hope they make it!
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Polyanya and Buttermilk, It must be lovely to hear them so much. Glad they are doing well near you.
It does say that they are very easily disturbed by people when nesting. We are lucky in that we have very few walkers or tourists here and so that's not a factor for them.
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Where are you based? Pennines, 1000ft[/size]Do you hear them? YesDo you see them? - yesDo they nest successfully near you? - I think soHow have their numbers changed in your area? Not sureIf they've declined .... Why do you thing this is? What are the contributing factors do you think? Predators? ? ? Leisure activities?What do we need to do to help them keep going? Control predators, Inc crows, foxes. Get through to idiot dog walkers to keep their dogs near them, and not run loose round nesting grounds.
As an aside, recently bawled someone out for their lab running about a known nesting site, he was nearly 300mtrs away, luckily wind was behind me, he got the dog and walked away.[/size]
Formatting, [member=22672]Penninehillbilly[/member] !!
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Where are you based? Pennines, 1000ftDo you hear them? YesDo you see them? - yesDo they nest successfully near you? - I think soHow have their numbers changed in your area? Not sureIf they've declined .... Why do you thing this is? What are the contributing factors do you think? Predators? ? ? Leisure activities?What do we need to do to help them keep going? Control predators, Inc crows, foxes. Get through to idiot dog walkers to keep their dogs near them, and not run loose round nesting grounds.
As an aside, recently bawled someone out for their lab running about a known nesting site, he was nearly 300mtrs away, luckily wind was behind me, he got the dog and walked away.
Formatting, [member=22672]Penninehillbilly[/member] !!
Are mine OK these days [member=10673]SallyintNorth[/member] ? I've been diligent in clicking the box I was told to :eyelashes:
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Are mine OK these days [member=10673]SallyintNorth[/member] ? I've been diligent in clicking the box I was told to :eyelashes:
Yes, haven't had a prob with your posts since, [member=4333]Fleecewife[/member] :thumbsup:
With PHB's post, I couldn't read the original, never mind what it looked like when I quoted it. Sometimes the original post is decipherable but when it's quoted it's just scribble, and sometimes the original post is too full of gobbledygook to be legible at all, as was the case with PHB's post here.
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Sorry SitN, hopefully more readable, dont know what went wrong, looked OK as i posted it.
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Penninehillbilly ..... I could read your post just like any other.
Is this just a problem when using certain devices?
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Sorry SitN, hopefully more readable, dont know what went wrong, looked OK as i posted it.
Thank you! :thumbsup: I can read your answers now : very interesting :)
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Penninehillbilly ..... I could read your post just like any other.
Is this just a problem when using certain devices?
Dan says it's mainly Chrome, but I use Apple devices so I'm on Safari.
Here was Dan's advice for all of you who use the WYSIWYG editor :
This was a long-standing problem with Chrome and the WYSIWYG view - do you use Chrome? If so, changing to the text view before posting (the last icon on the second row) should solve it.
The forum software we use is long overdue an update...
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Thanks, SITN
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Quite a few people in our community love our curlews, and respect them, there is usually a post about hearing the first cry, much the same as our first swallows, but they seem to come very early then disappear for a while.
We have them in our bottom fields, but perhaps only as a feeding ground, breeding ground is a field away, upland sheep grazing, not managed, but a footpath along the edge of what i think is the breeding area, hence the problem with dogs :(
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Now we no longer have our dogs ( :'( ) we are hoping that the curlews realise they can nest here again. We shut up 2 fields for hay in April, so they wouldn't be disturbed even by trampling sheep. I wonder how to attract them? Lapwings too, maybe oyster catchers. Perhaps when they notice that larks and yellow hammers do nest in the longer grass of the shut-up fields, they will come along too :fc:
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I'll try to copy links for you FW.
We basically asked the same question to CurlewCountry because we've been told that the curlew used to nest just a field away from us and we would be happy to manage our land and activities around them.
Unfortunately it would seem that our land wouldn't be ideal for them.
A few things that we found out .....
They seem to prefer fields that have been shut off from stock.
They like to nest in the middle of open fields and not near to woodland (rules us out really) because they feel unsafe near woods/hedges as it gives shelter to predators.
They like a sward of 20 to 30cm. Enough to give cover but low enough for them to look over the top for predators.
My daughter spotted the curlew again last night at about 9pm. She walked along the road and they flew right over her head and landed to feed in the opposite field. Not sure why we keep seeing 2 flying and feeding together? Maybe they haven't nested/not completed their clutch/????
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Thank you in the hills. Our place will be out for curlew too as we have spent the past 25 years planting and nurturing bushy hedgerows all around our place, so it is now fairly enclosed (the microclimate is totally altered). When we first came here it was totally open, just stob and wire fencing, so would have been perfect. Ironic to think we have changed the land to the detriment of curlew, in an effort partly to attract wildlife - the law of unintended consequences :-\ . The next step is to spread the word locally to landowners....I feel a letter in the Parish Magazine coming on ;D
Are the curlew your daughter spotted ones you have seen in previous years, or are they new? I wonder if they are like corvids which don't breed in their first few years, but do pair up? So lovely to see them :)
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Ooooo, maybe that's a possibility, FW.
I'm not sure if they are new or not. We certainly spotted a pair fly over the road in that exact spot last summer. So maybe that indicates they are a returning pair.
It's a road about a mile and a half from where we live and not a road we've walked along very much in the past. We have been told that years ago it was a curlew hotspot there .....lots of them in that area.
Someone that farms some of the land up there says that she hears them sometimes but has never seen them nesting.
Read yesterday that drugs used to control internal parasites of sheep and cattle can affect invertebrate populations thus affecting feeding for curlew. Oh dear! Everything seems to be against them.
Did you read on CurlewCountry that 75% of the nests were predated by either badger or foxes?!
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My daughter is hoping to study Ecology at university in September.
Where are you based?
280m, near Inverness.
Do you hear them? Yes
Do you see them? Yes
Do they nest successfully near you? Yes
How have their numbers changed in your area? There are good years and bad years but over the last 10 years I'd say numbers have been fairly static.
If they've declined .... Why do you thing this is? What are the contributing factors do you think? Predators? Land use? Farm management? Leisure activities?
What do we need to do to help them keep going?
Most land for miles around is primarily managed for shooting. As a result there are very few predators ( for years we never shut chickens in and only once lost one to a stoat (any fox, stoat, pine Martin or cat is unlikely to survive long)) that's bound to help ground nesting birds like curlews.
On the other hand the number of pheasants has to have an effect on wildlife. There is no doubt at all that the reason we no longer get black grouse is because they were crowded out and out-competed by pheasants. Pheasants are not such direct competitors with curlew but I wouldn't be surprised if there is an impact.
The other big impact has to be the making of silage instead of hay (making hay here is too unreliable so it is all silage). It means fields are mowed earlier in the year before ground nesters have had a chance.
Thanks ........
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Interesting thought Oor Wullie ....... We are on the edge of a huge shoot here. So many pheasants ...... you wouldn't believe it!
I wonder if they do 'compete'???????
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When we arrived here (9 years ago) black grouse lekked in our field. Cock pheasants would crowd around the black cock (often 20 to 1) and not let him do his stuff and so I suspect they struggled to mate and died off as no new generations were produced.
The pheasants must strip all the food resources too (otherwise why would the local estate have to put out tons (literally) of pheasant food).
Absolutely no doubt that they have a huge impact on certain wildlife that they directly compete with however, curlews are waders and so utilise a different food resource from pheasants and so I guess that their impact on curlews is not so significant.
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I am really enjoying finding out more about curlew. I watch the curlew cam for a while each day. I observed the female calling quietly from the nest and after a while there was a reply, she flew straight from the nest and a couple of minutes later the male arrived through the grass to brood. Once settled on the nest he gave a couple of calls too, presumably to let his mate know all was well. Yesterday a human hand and arm suddenly appeared at the (then empty) nest, plucking out some blades of grass and squashing down the foliage to give the camera the best view. I had previously wondered how the troublesome and rapidly growing docken had magically vanished. I hope that by visiting the nest in this way, people are not showing predators the way to the nest.
Did you ever get a reply [member=24384]in the hills[/member] about when the chicks are due to hatch?
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Fleecewife, sorry, you must have missed my reply to you. I don't know how you tag someone into the posts on here so you wouldn't have received a notification.
But yes, CurlewCountry did reply, and they think that the eggs are due to hatch during the first week of June. Not too long now!
We have read that there is some doubt about the success associated with using electric fencing around nests because although it helps to protect against mammalian predators it has the opposite effect where corvids are concerned as they are attracted to the new fencing.
The curlew population of Wales has apparently fallen by 80% in the last decade or so. Shocking!
We heard and spotted another Curlew last night. In a different area to our other pair.
Glad you're enjoying finding out about them too, FW. Let us know what you discover!
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To tag someone, click @ followed by their name (no gap). A drop box appears so you can choose the person and it appears as brown and underlined in the text, then the person gets a notification.
80% lost in just ten years - that is horrifying, but I can believe it after our experiences here. My heart is in my mouth for the pair on the curlewcam, especially at night. I fear a close-up view of a fox or badger, then a totally empty nest. Two years ago on the osprey cam at Loch Arkaig, we watched in horror as a pine marten appeared in the nest one night, scared off the female osprey, then one after the other made off with the three half incubated eggs. So that was a failed breeding season for them. (they have since bred successfully and the tree is now protected against pine martens )
It's great that you have now heard and seen a second curlew calling.
I shall be watching the nest cam avidly next week.
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Just had a look, poor thing looks to be struggling with the heat :(
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[member=22672]Penninehillbilly[/member] and [member=22672]Penninehillbilly[/member] ....... Yes, she seems rather hot under the collar. If you have a look on the CurlewCountry website and go to their blog they've added a post about this very subject.
Thank you, Fleecewife. I've followed your instructions. Hope that it's worked! I have no patience with computer stuff!
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I checked in with the camera a bit before noon today. Male on nest gave the quiet call for his mate to come, repeated a couple of times. She appeared by the nest but he did not fly away as usual. The pair of them spent 5 or 10 minutes watching the sky and seeming to be quite worried, presumably about an aerial predator. Eventually the male left, but instead of flying straight from the nest, he crept away through the undergrowth. The female on the nest has continued to watch the sky.
My heart is in my mouth watching this pair: Will their eggs survive to hatch? Will the chicks survive their first few days and their first year?
The Loch Arkaig Ospreys have just hatched their second chick. One more to go :fc:
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[member=4333]Fleecewife[/member] ...... They're peeping!
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Good and Bad.....
Now the worrying REALLY starts.
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I couldn't see...will they leave the nest once they hatch, or do they hang around for a while all together?
Perhaps they'll hatch tomorrow :excited:
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She/he didn't seem to be too bothered by a helicopter passing nearby at this late (or should that be early) hour !
(I'm not sure why I'm still up - I'm about to hit the pillow now though!)
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It looks as if one egg is partly hatched 8)
The adults look pretty bedraggled in the RAIN!
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My daughter has been watching all morning.
Definitely one fully hatched chick but think there could well be a second at the back of the nest.
Empty shell clearly visible at the front of the shot.
Think they are independent very quickly, Fleecewife, and disperse from the nest searching for their own food. We will see.
Fingers crossed for them! Survival rate there has been very poor in past years, I believe.
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At 1215 at least 2 chicks and it looks as if a further egg is partly hatched.
If a pair can rear at least 3 chicks to breeding age over the course of their lives, then they are contributing to growing numbers of curlew so :fc: this season is good for them. It's doing my blood pressure no good to watch ::)
At 1230 I can hear the chicks making their infant curlew calls from under the adult. There is a lot of weird egg crunching type noise too ??? The adult can't sit still for an instant :D
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Yes [member=4333]Fleecewife[/member] ..... the crunching sounds!!!!!
Daughter mentioned these. Makes you wonder if the parents fidgeting sort of crushes/weakens shells to help them out?
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Could be. The shells are all crunched up now that all four chicks have hatched (mid afternoon). One popped out of the duvet this evening and is completely dry and fluffy, so I expect they will leave with the adult tomorrow
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Says on FB that the ornithologist will be trying to ring them this morning.
We might see that on the cam.
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Just been watching for a few minutes, facing camera, is very vocal, then a chick came out of the grass behind her(?) ?
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Just been watching for a few minutes, facing camera, is very vocal, then a chick came out of the grass behind her(?) ?
They've been scattering in all directions all morning - it's terrifying :o The big drawback of precocial chicks I suppose. All the calling is trying to keep them together and draw them back to the nest. Right now - 1228 - the nest is empty and even the adult (female I think) has flown off.
I'm wondering if the reason they keep the eggshells in the nest, and crush them down to become part of the nest structure is to give the chicks somewhere smelly to come home to if the parent isn't there.
Good luck with trying to ring them - they're everywhere and nowhere :o
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It's amazing how quickly they're up and running! Bit scary ???? though.
You can see why they are so vulnerable!
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Totally terrifying! I had to turn back to the calm and practiced ospreys at Loch Arkaig just to get my BP and pulse back to normal ;D
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@ 11:45 today I only saw 3 chicks one of which decided to go walk about, exit top right. Oh! so I hung on for 10mins or so while parent called to it. Then chick enters frame bottom left. I assumed it was the same chick having circumnavigated the nest, but perhaps it was the 4th chick returning from its own perambulations !?
Would have been nice to see them all disperse later, but heh ho.
As to eggshells remaining in the nest, I would guess that there's no point in removing if the nest is going to be abandoned in such a short time after hatching !?
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All gone. Good luck little chicks.
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Off the cam topic, but saw someone across the fields, on footpath, but big black dog running about curlew area. Sooo frustrating, heard curlews calling when he was out of sight, dont know whether dog disturbed them or not.
Why are people so uncaring about our wildlife. :(
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Off the cam topic, but saw someone across the fields, on footpath, but big black dog running about curlew area. Sooo frustrating, heard curlews calling when he was out of sight, dont know whether dog disturbed them or not.
Why are people so uncaring about our wildlife. :(
See how few people even though they are smallholders, are interested enough to post in and read the 'wildlife' section of TAS. People will pay thousands to go on safari in Africa or to some remote island, but seem to think our own wonderful wildlife is mundane or irrelevant. Yes, it's really sad, this lack of interest. I really think the people you saw with the dog might not have realised there was wildlife around - heavens, so many folk still think sheep are provided in the countryside as exercise for their chasing dogs. There are more and more films and programmes for people to watch about wildlife, including British creatures, but the worry is there'll be none left by the time everyone catches on.
Not a wildlife story, but Mr F still gets furious if he remembers the time he saw a woman driver deliberately swerve her car in order to hit and squash a domestic duck which was in the road. Imagine doing that :rant: :furious: For me, the vast majority of humanity is totally beyond my understanding.
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With you there about the vast majority FW, got it in a nutshell
but the woman driver !!!! Sick.
Hope the curlew chicks are OK
Wondering if we have some nesting in our top field, they were there and calling as it was getting dark tonight, amazingly, and embarrassingly, they are now a 'background noise unless I stop what I'm doing for a minute, I hear the lapwings and pheasants, but only just twigged I often hear the curlews up there as well, so used to thinking of them in the bottom fields.
Trouble is the field slopes up to the skyline, then levels off out of sight. Tenant put his cattle in a few days ago, hope all the birds are OK.
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Heard a curlew flying over yesterday. First one since last year, sLund caught me by surprise :-)
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With you there about the vast majority FW, got it in a nutshell
but the woman driver !!!! Sick.
Hope the curlew chicks are OK
Wondering if we have some nesting in our top field, they were there and calling as it was getting dark tonight, amazingly, and embarrassingly, they are now a 'background noise unless I stop what I'm doing for a minute, I hear the lapwings and pheasants, but only just twigged I often hear the curlews up there as well, so used to thinking of them in the bottom fields.
Trouble is the field slopes up to the skyline, then levels off out of sight. Tenant put his cattle in a few days ago, hope all the birds are OK.
Oh no - those huge feet would trample the nest flat. :fc: the chicks are up and away :sunshine:
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I read somewhere that animals tend not to tread on nests, hoping that's true :fc: . We do tend to be a bit later with things up here, so if those in Wales have only just hatched, ours may be still sitting.
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Sad news ...... CurlewCountry believe the cam chicks were predated after just a few days. Tags have not been found. Behaviour of adults seems to confirm this apparently.
In our favourite curlew spotting area we are just seeing one of the pair of adult curlew that were usually sighted. We aren't sure if this means they have a nest/chicks or if they have given up and gone their separate ways. Unfortunately fortfor them thefthe are now being cut up here. Would seem quite difficult for them to rear young here with the fields being too short due to grazing when they arrive at their breeding grounds and then probably not enough time for them to rear a late brood before the fields are cut. My neighbour tells me that the farms up here were more 'mixed' farming when he was a young man and each farm would have a corn field or two and that these were the fields favoured for nesting by the curlew. Also there were more ploughed fields for crops of turnip etc and the curlew favoured these for feeding.
So sad, that sound as they fly is so special. :'(
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That is so very sad to hear.
In passing, I heard a sitting parent make their so-called curling "flight call" from the nest at one point while calling to newly wandering chicks!
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Sad news ...... CurlewCountry believe the cam chicks were predated after just a few days. Tags have not been found. Behaviour of adults seems to confirm this apparently.
In our favourite curlew spotting area we are just seeing one of the pair of adult curlew that were usually sighted. We aren't sure if this means they have a nest/chicks or if they have given up and gone their separate ways. Unfortunately fortfor them thefthe are now being cut up here. Would seem quite difficult for them to rear young here with the fields being too short due to grazing when they arrive at their breeding grounds and then probably not enough time for them to rear a late brood before the fields are cut. My neighbour tells me that the farms up here were more 'mixed' farming when he was a young man and each farm would have a corn field or two and that these were the fields favoured for nesting by the curlew. Also there were more ploughed fields for crops of turnip etc and the curlew favoured these for feeding.
So sad, that sound as they fly is so special. :'(
Isn't it so sad, after all the fear and danger they survive while they are sitting, only for their chicks to be taken. It is also a bit more doom for the species. Unless we start to legislate that where Curlew and other ground nesting birds nest then cultivations can only take place at certain times, then these iconic birds will soon become extinct. I suppose it might encourage deliberate destruction of nests to avoid rules - it's hard to tell if such things do more harm than good sometimes.
Interesting about the mixed farming being so much better for curlew. One of our neighbours used to grow a 'neep' field every year, and there were always curlews, now he doesn't and there aren't! Possibly just coincidence as there must be plenty of other factors.
I think it's hopeful that your pair are brooding, as they take it in turns and never leave the nest uncovered, so there is only ever one bird feeding and flying at a time. I noticed that when they are ready to swap [member=152775]arobwk[/member] if the other parent is a bit tardy, then they do their flight call increasingly loudly. The other one of the pair replies when it's on its way. They perhaps do it too if the chicks don't immediately respond to quiet calls for them to come back.
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That's interesting FW ......one of the old farmers up here (now sadly passed away) talked about his turnip field and the birds of many types that would feed there. I suppose that mosaic of different habitats doesn't exist so much these days.
We've extended our veg plot this year and even on this small scale we've noticed far more thrushes coming down to feed.