Largest number of curlew fledglings since 2017

Curlew, Numenius arquata, in cotton grass. File picture.

The final year of a dedicated conservation programme for one of Ireland’s most threatened breeding birds has seen the largest number of young curlews fledged into the wild since it began in 2017.

Once synonymous with the Irish landscape, the curlew has since suffered a 98% crash in population, primarily due to changes in landscape and land use, with the wet, marginal land they thrived on being depleted and made inhospitable.