British Birds paper from December 2015 (
The Eurasian curlew the most pressing bird conservation priority in the UK?, Brown et al), and had been increasingly worried by Birdwatch Ireland press releases arriving on my desk at the BBC Natural History Unit. These horror stories screamed emergency the Emerald Isle was witnessing a 90% decline in numbers since the 1980s, and now Numenius arquata was red-listed in the UK. The beautiful curlew seemed to be edging closer to oblivion.
Action on curlew needed
I couldn’t understand what was happening and why there was no dramatic action to turn things around. I wanted to help but wasn’t sure what an individual could do, other than walk, talk and try to bring the issue to the fore. Never in a thousand years would I have believed that in March 2021 things would have moved on so much that the Curlew Recovery Partnership England mercifully shortened to CRP would be launched and the curlew recognised as a flagship species for the heal