Its distinctive call was once the sound of summer, echoing across bogs and meadowland during an era when farming was less intensive and birds enjoyed the freedom of the Irish countryside. But the curlew’s cry has been silenced in many parts of Ireland in the last 40 years and its habitats now survive in just a few remote regions where this majestic, long-beaked bird – once so populous on the western seaboard – is making its last stand.
The first national survey of breeding curlew in Ireland was coordinated by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) between 2015 and 2017 and estimated that the breeding population at 138 pairs, which represents a decline of 96 per cent since the population estimate generated by the Bird Atlas of 1988 – 1991.
In response to these worrying figures, the NWPS established the Curlew Conservation Project in 2017 in a bid to identify and preserve areas in the country where there was still a reasonably healthy breeding population. One such area was east Mayo
where a team from the NWPS has been based for the past four months, operating from a house adjacent to the Ave Maria Nursing Home in Tooreen.
The team came more in hope than expectation for the fifth year of a conservation project that has yielded mixed results. “Curlew in Ireland depends on open habitats such as bogs and grasslands where there is little disturbance,” explains Roscommon man James Owens, who is overseeing the NWPS scheme in east Mayo. “The problem is that their habitats are being lost or fragmented and when that happens predators become a serious issue, with curlew finding it almost impossible to rear young chicks.”
Shrule native Brian Hughes, who has been on the ground in east Mayo for much of the past four months, says there are many misconceptions about the curlew, the most common being that there are still plenty of them in Ireland. “Thousands of curlew come to Ireland from Europe and Russia each winter and people often see them in their turloughs and assume they are
native to Ireland,” he explains. “It is not the case at all. The native Irish curlew has been in decline for decades, and if the trend continues unchecked, the Irish breeding population will be lost within five to 10 years.”
The key to the survival of the curlew is the protection of its nesting grounds, usually in bogs or moorland where eggs are laid in April and May. The chicks leave the nest a few hours after hatching and fledge within 32 to 38 days. Those five weeks are
when the curlew is at its most vulnerable to predators and modern farming methods. “The curlew’s form of defence is to
stay rooted to the spot,” explains Newbridge man Con Farrell who has been tracking the birds in east Mayo with James and Brian. “The chicks cannot fly at that stage anyway and neither will the mother when a natural predator or a machine approaches so they stand no chance if the field in which they are nesting is cut in May or June.”
There may be a perception that the modern farmer is indifferent to the fate of birds like the curlew but that hasn’t been the experience of the NWPS team during their time in east Mayo. They say there is genuine interest in the project and a willingness among local farmers to offer practical assistance in identifying nesting grounds. As an example, Brian cites
an elderly farmer in Carracastle, near Charlestown, who learned of the conservation project in the pages of this newspaper last April and immediately contacted the team. “He told us he was pretty sure he had heard the curlew in a bog near
his home so we went over to investigate and sure enough it is a nesting ground. In fact, we think there may be a decent number there and we hope to investigate it more next year. It is part of the River Moy Special Area of Conservation (SAC).”
The NWPS team has identified a number of new habitats in east Mayo but it is painstaking work and they are largely dependent on the knowledge of local people of a certain generation because anyone under the age of 50 is unlikely to recognise the call of the curlew even if they have grown up in the countryside. “We were out in a bog one day where we thought there might be a breeding ground and we came across a young fellow footing turf with his earphones in,” recalls Brian with a laugh. “When we asked him had he heard the curlew he looked at us like we were Martians!”
Ironically, the same advances in technology that have been the bane of the curlew’s existence over the last half-century may ultimately prove its saviour. The NWPS team is able to electronically tag and track curlew, which makes it easier to locate
and protect breeding grounds. Their work has involved erecting fencing around nesting birds to ensure they are protected from man and beast during those vital five weeks when the chicks are being reared. Generally, if the new generation makes it beyond that period and gets their wings they will go on to live long lives, possibly for as long as 30 years. In the case of the curlews in east Mayo, many will fly north-west to the Moy estuary but they will return to their breeding grounds again next spring so the data compiled this year will be vital in tracking the birds for years to come.
It is, however, an uphill battle to reverse the inexorable downward trend of the past four decades. The curlew is an iconic species in Irish natural history – it even features in the poetry of W.B. Yeats – and there is certainly plenty of local goodwill for the conservation project in east Mayo. Goodwill, however, will only go so far. “The response to our work has been brilliant,” says Con, “especially from the older farmers who would know of the curlew from their youth. But farmers in areas where there are habitats need to be incentivised to cut the meadows a little later, which would then give the curlew a better chance of survival. If farmers got a yearly payment to delay that cutting to July, that would make a massive difference”.
Con has seen it all before with the Great Partridge, another bird native to Ireland that has teetered on the brink of extinction for several decades and is now the subject of a conservation programme. “These birds just need a helping hand to survive”, and says “We don’t want to lose them because they are such a part of our heritage; it would be a shame if they were to be wiped out.”
The work of the NWPS team in Tooren has provoked a lot of interest among the residents of the nearby Ave Maria Nursing Home who themselves recall hearing the distinctive call of the curlew in bygone years. Brian and Con gave a presentation to the residents in June and may even have a going-away party in the nursing home later this month when the project reaches its conclusion. “The residents really enjoyed hearing about the work of the lads,” said proprietor Anne Feeney, who runs the nursing home with her husband Tommy. “The curlew would have been a big part of their child-hood so it is something they really re-late to and it brings back so many happy memories for them. After a long year battling COVID, this has been a welcome and pleasant diversion for them and we are delighted to be associated with it and to help out in any way. We even had our own curlew at the front of the building on the day of the presentation!”
Local County Councillor John Caufield is another who has taken a keen interest in the project. “The NWPS team have done great work in East Mayo over the last few months and they have received a lot of support and encouragement from local farmers,” he says. “I believe this is an initiative that has huge potential and it is something I am very keen to support because this part of the county needs to protect its rich and varied bird population.”
The distinctive call of the curlew has been the harbinger of summer for as long as man has farmed the fields in this part of the world. Its shrill cry may be less frequent these days but it still echoes across the east Mayo countryside, an ancient sound that is worth preserving for future generations.