Curlew and grouse moors

Yorkshire Dales Moorland Group

If there are two things that go together perfectly its curlews and grouse moors. The picture above comes from video that was taken this week of over-wintering curlews in Wensleydale. This is a unique colony that spends the harsh winter months inland on and adjacent to managed moors. It consists primarily of male curlews with most of our female birds departing for coastal estuaries such as Morecambe bay but as far as Eire.

These birds hold a special place in the hearts of our upland keepers. Their bubbling and arrestive call signifies spring is about to arrive and that soon the moors will be bursting at the seams with new life. This Wensleydale colony often expands with new arrivals and it is not unusual to see up to five hundred birds congregating together.

Managed grouse moors are incredibly important breeding grounds for the UK curlew population. There is an estimated breeding population of 58,000 here in the British Isles and around 36 to 40% of them breed on managed moors. With managed uplands accounting for only around 7% of the UK land mass its an irrefutable fact that our grouse moors are critical to this iconic and much cherished species.

Five estates in our region are collaborating on a project to reintroduce curlews to the south east of England. Yorkshire eggs are collected, incubated and then sent south for rearing and release. Every stage of this project being undertaken by gamekeeping staff. This would be unthinkable without the high levels of productivity here on our keepered moors. Indeed a recent research programme revealed that our moors are producing four times more curlew chicks than comparable unmanaged sites.

This is a creditable achievement by the moor managers and it is these levels of productivity that are facilitating the southern conservation project. Isn't it about time that moorland keepers got the recognition they deserve for protecting these and other ground nesting birds? If in the future gamekeepers can deliver the signature call of breeding curlews to places like Cranborne Chase, the South Downs and Kent, it will be a conservation milestone that the grouse moor keepers of the Yorkshire Dales can be justly proud.

Grouse moors deliver wildlife!