Farmers in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in North Yorkshire have come together to help prevent the decline of one of Britain’s rarest birds – the Eurasian curlew.
The Darley Beck Curlew Project is taking a step towards more nature-friendly farming, in order to prevent the decline of this iconic farmland species, which has seen numbers fall by 50% since 1995.
The species currently has “near threatened” status on the RSPB’s “red list”.
See also: Wild bird project – a blueprint for future farm support?
In response, farmers in the Nidderdale area have set up a cluster group, led by local producer Clive White, to better understand the causes of the decline and to find ways of protecting curlew chicks.
“During the past 10 years, the curlews have always returned to the valley in good numbers, but I’ve noticed that they suddenly disappear around mid-summer, well before the chicks have fledged,” he told Farmers Weekly.
“In other words, for one reason or another, they are failing to reproduce.”
Recording curlew data
Clive White © Clive White
Supported by the Nidderdale AONB and funded by the government’s Farming in Protected Landscapes scheme, the Darley Beck Curlew Project started this year by recruiting volunteers to collect curlew data in the area.
The survey site stretches across 400ha, and the 10 farmers involved have a mixture of improved pasture and rough grazing – ideal for curlews.
Some 26 bird surveyors visited the area weekly from May to August to count the curlews and their chicks.
Over that period, they established that, from 25 nests observed, just one chick survived, highlighting the single biggest hurdle – a disastrous fledgling success rate.
To maintain a steady population, each breeding pair needs to achieve at least one surviving chick every other year.
Causes of curlew depletion
The study revealed two primary contributors to curlew depletion – predation and disruption to nesting sites.
As ground-nesting birds, curlews are naturally prone to attacks by predators, such as crows and foxes.
But the bigger problem has been the increase in farming intensification, in particular the switch to silage-making, the trend to taking multiple cuts of grass, and the presence of larger numbers of livestock.
These all make successful brood rearing a challenge, as more frequent passes of farm machinery and heavier footfall from farm animals inflict damage on often hard-to-see curlew nests and chicks.
Minimising farming’s impact
Members of the Darley Beck Curlew Project have been meeting to consider the data collected so far and devise a strategy for the next two years of the project.
“We plan to tweak the timing of the farmers’ normal agricultural activities to make them curlew friendly, while trying to minimise the impact on their farming businesses,” said Mr White.
“For example, we might advise avoiding activities, such as harrowing and rolling, after mid-April to protect curlew nests and adjusting the timing and number of livestock let into the fields in which the curlews wish to nest.”
Mr White adds that the project should involve compensating farmers both for their time and trouble, and the reduction in nutritional quality of any silage or hay they produce from the late-cut fields.
Farmers are also encouraged to consider changing from silage-making to hay to create damper areas for chicks to feed and to cut old stands of rushes in winter to encourage regrowth in the spring.
What can farmers do?
Farm cluster leader Clive White has made a number of important observations about the way in which farming practices impact on the birds and how they may need to change. These include:
- Curlews require shorter grass – 10-15cm long – in May. This is when nesting starts and they like a good view of their surroundings. If a field is closed off for silage too soon, or not grazed beforehand, the grass will be too long and they won’t nest.
- Curlews do not like livestock. They will nest in fields lightly stocked with sheep, but heavy stocking and cattle disturb them although, once hatched, fields with livestock are appealing for the young birds to feed in.
- Timing is everything. If the birds are disturbed in May by stock movements, by the time the chicks hatch in June or July, they will be vulnerable to forage harvesting.
- Harrowing and rolling should be done before mid-April, otherwise nests will be destroyed. The parents will breed again but the chicks will arrive later and be vulnerable to mowing.
- If possible, mowing should be delayed until July. At four weeks old, the chicks will be able to run out of the way. At two weeks, they will not.
- It is important to remember that slurry and fertiliser spreading are less of a problem, but people and dogs are.
