Forty eight young curlews are being released back into their natural habitat as part of efforts to protect the species.
The Eurasian curlew is an iconic resident of the Shropshire Hills and the Welsh Marches, but declining numbers have seen the species added to the UK’s Red List of highest conservation concern.
But non-profit organisation Curlew Country is hoping to improve the chances of Shropshire’s curlews by making sure the young birds get the best possible start in life.
“[The project] has started to stabilise the population, but it’s not the long-term solution,” said Amanda Perkins, who leads the group.
The team have been “headstarting” the birds, Perkins explained, by taking in eggs from wild nests and incubating and raising them in specially-constructed pens.
“Our monitoring […] showed that no chick survived to fledging from any of the nests we looked at,” she said, adding that the team “needed a desperate measure to try and hold the situation”.
Perkins described the process, which is licensed by Natural England, as “a sort of sticking plaster” that will work “until we can get better natural nesting in place”.
“In the wild, these chicks aren’t surviving,” she said.
