Birds Eye View

DRONES SAVE CURLEWS FROM SILAGE MAKING

As farmers make the most of this hot weather with grass cutting, tossing and baling in full swing, many unseen ground-nesting birds and their chicks (from pheasants to skylarks), out in the middle of swathes of buttercups and grass are threatened with being crushed. It's also currently peak curlew season with curlew chicks hatching every day.

However, in Cumbria, a bird protection charity called 'Curlew Recovery South Lakes', has been using thermal drones to locate and rescue curlew chicks before farmers inadvertently crush them.

Curlews are endangered in the UK and need urgent help - their breeding population has halved in the past 25 years and they have been on the Red List for the past 10. Wading birds, they're more often seen in shallow water, but they breed in wet grasslands, farm and moorland and lay their eggs in a 'scrape' which is a nest on the ground, vulnerable to predators like foxes and today's farming practices.

The charity Curlew Recovery South Lakes have found 32 nests and 27 chicks over the past 10 days with more chicks due to hatch this week. One of the drone pilots said that farmers have been fantastic, with some fencing off the nests and other adjusting their cutting times. Curlew Recovery South Lakes operate a drone hotline that farmers can call at any time to get their fields checked. A great idea which would be amazing if it was replicated up and down the country for all of our ground nesting birds.