Say What You See

Successful conservation relies on data, data needs people to collect it, we are all people. Therefore we can all make a really valuable contribution to conservation simply by submitting records of the species we see to the relevant organisation, often this is you local record centre.

This week I attended the Wiltshire Recorders Forum. The day consisted of a range of talks about biological recording projects and scheme being undertaken in Wiltshire. It was a really inspiring day and has given me about 2 billion ideas, most of which will never happen. It great to see so many people all passionate about conservation gathered in place.

There were a few talks that were of particular interest and relevance to the Wiltshire Wader Group Project. One that really stood out was a talk about the contrasting fortunes of the Stone-Curlew and the Curlew in the county. The talk also covered briefly how Lapwings benefit from Stone-Curlew habitat management, more on this topic is to come.

Anyway; in summary the Stone-Curlew is doing well and the Curlew is doing badly. It was made clear in the talk that the Curlew in Wiltshire, much like the rest of the country, is on a knife edge. Only a small handful of of pairs bred in the country last year and a maximum of three chicks were raised. This is is a sad state of affairs.

Landowners such as the RSPB are investigating how to manage land better for the Curlew but members of the public can play an important role by recording when and where they see Curlew, especially during the breeding season. This can help monitor populations and potentially find new breeding areas. Records can be submitted on the Wiltshire & Swindon Biological Records Centre.

The Curlew is disappearing fast, but there is still time. Together we can save them.