South Lakes Curlew Recovery
Susannah Bleakley
The speaker at the meeting of Kendal Rotary on 9th October was Susannah Bleakley from ‘South Lakes Curlew Recovery’ who gave a presentation on the plight of local curlews. The haunting call of the curlew is familiar to many of us in the valley. But sadly, the famously evocative and previously familiar call of the curlew is becoming increasingly rare. Due to predation by badgers, weasels, stoats and other egg eating predators; change in farming methods from hay cropping after the rearing season is finished to silage cutting continuosly through the late spring/early summer breeding season; and climate change the UK’s breeding curlew population has halved in the last 25 years and the species faces a high risk of extinction. Curlews have been added to the UK red list for endangered birds and it is argued to be the most pressing bird conservation priority in the country. However the work of this group in the Lyth valley working with local farmers is beginning to see a growth in the local population.
