Garden Birds - Re-Connecting 'To' and 'With' The Wild – August: Curlew (Numenius Arquata)

Garden Birds - Re-Connecting 'To' and 'With' The Wild – August: Curlew (Numenius Arquata)

For those new to my posts, in the run up to the 'Festive Season 2019, I was led to purchase an Endangered Species Calendar, not to keep the content of this very important calendar to myself - no, accompanied by some text written by me about the species featured each month, I purchased it with the intention of sharing the images and text with you.

Writing about these incredible creatures with who we share this beautiful earth, we can engage with them and their beauty, as well as wholly face and consider the very real threat to their survival and ponder our part in taking 'full' responsibility in relation to doing all that we can to protect them – how we keep them safe and very much alive.

We are to understand the importance of their natural habitat, our doing so whilst giving attention to that of our own, which 'for many reasons' is also in immediate danger.

Fully stepping into my role as a 'Flesh and Blood Guardian of The Earth' - which, in short, means 'Earth Keeper - Keeper of the Earth', I began sharing important news and information about our natural environment and our combined role in becoming 'a part of it' as apposed to 'apart from it' in the way that we have - 'over time' - become.

In the Mother Earth - Earth Letter, which will be shared in full just as soon as I am able to get the website complete and live, Gaia is calling us home - she is inviting us to re-connect with her and all life and living things in the understanding that we are each and all interrelated and interdependent.

Here, I offer up a few lines about the importance of all life, as shared by Gaia in her communication within which she is clear in her message, as she says:

"Constant giver, carer, supporter and loving nurturer – ever patient guide and teacher – all life is born from Gaia, each with purpose, each with equal importance; the tree, the ant, the deer in the park and fish in the sea, the soil, the rock – all life - no more or no less important!" ~ Extract Mother Earth - Earth Letter

We began our exploration of Endangered Species in January 2020 with the Snow Leopard and moved on to turn our attention towards the Emperor Penguin, Marine Turtle, Giant Panda, The Gorilla, Asian Elephant, Rhinoceros, Orangutan, Whale, Tiger, Amur Leopard and ended the year in December with the Polar Bear.

I wrote a post each month about endangered species in order to highlight the plight of some of the most beautiful creatures in the wild that are on the watch list or have reached an immediate danger point of extinction.

In 2021, I chose to write about Wildlife, especially so because I wanted to forge a better knowledge and understanding of a host of delightful creatures in our direct living environment, such as The Hedgehog, Deer, Rabbit (and others - about which ‘due to time limitation last year' I am still yet to write) for us to forge a committed relationship to them in order to bring about a better connection between us as differing species that share the same natural environment as our collective home.

For the year 2022, we cast our attention to British Garden & Wild Birds - our feathered friends, little souls that give us such delight.

January was given over to the Goldfinch, February we moved our focus onto the Barn Owl, March saw us connect with the Blue Tit, in April we met the Goosander, May we embraced the Greenfinch, in June we learnt about the Whinchat (Saxicola Ruberta) - which, to be honest, I didn't know a thing about and in July we were enchanted by the Yellowhammer - a truly colourful little character.

This month we are to meet a rather distinguished looking bird in the form of the Curlew – the scientific name for which is Numenius Arquata.

The Curlew is a member of the bird family: Sandpipers, snipes and phalaropes – each and all distinctive in appearance, their long legs and beaks being a giveaway because their long slender legs, down curved bills and mottled brown plumage is characteristic of their type – Curlews being what is known as a wader.

Protected by The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 the Curlew is listed as UK Conservation Status - ‘RED’.

Birds of Conservation Concern 5, the latest review published in December 2021, which updates on the last assessment issued in 2015, shows that 70 species are now of 'highest conservation concern' status.

First published in 1996 - Birds of Conservation Concern is compiled by a coalition of the UK’s leading bird conservation and monitoring organisations. It reviews the status of all regularly occurring birds in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man and gives information of birds listed by category ‘Red, Amber Green’ and gives explanation as to the concerns for these birds and the causes for such concern.

Here is a link to the Birds of Conservation Concern 5 within which the species of varying levels of concern are listed, to include the Curlew in the ‘red’ list:

https://www.bto.org/.../bocc-5-a5-4pp-single-pages.pdf

The curlews are a group of nine species of birds in the genus Numenius – there are eight types of Curlew: whimbrel, slender-billed curlew, Eurasian curlew, long-billed curlew, Far Eastern curlew, little curlew, Eskimo curlew and bristle-thighed curlew– the Eurasian Curlew being the most common.

Belonging to a group of birds known as ‘waders’ so named because they spend a good deal of their time wading in shallow waters.

Curlew are to be found in large groups known as a curfew, a salon, or skein of curlews on muddy coasts, mudflats and estuaries, as well as rocky shores, coastal wetlands and inland lake shores around the UK in the winter.

Its long beaks served this bird well for the muddy coasts, mudflats and estuaries for which it is well equipped to dig deep into the mud for worms and other suitable food sources.

The 'cur-lee' call of the curlew is a recognisable sound, and ‘to me’, a most beautiful sound.

Here is a clip in which you can hear its call and learn more about this beautiful wetland bird and the fall in its numbers.

A Curlew Calls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4aLQ0An71E

In comparison to the small garden birds that we have covered, met and learnt about so far, the curlew is a much larger bird; about the same size as a female pheasant.

Easily identified by its curled beak and long wading legs, making it taller than the garden birds we have covered, and for good reason.

Its call ('cur-lee') unmistakable, which once heard, remains within you somehow - a call that resounds its breeding grounds of wet grasslands, farmland, heath and moorlands from February through to July, and from July onwards coastal numbers start to build up, peaking in January.

Here is a little clip to help you to identify the difference between the Curlew and Whimbrel: BTO Bird ID - Curlew and Whimbrel -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt8ZK8fI3W8

Like many species in nature, the curlew has inspired writers, musicians and artists, featuring in cultural aspects of folklore, art and music – as is the case for other birds, animals, insects, plants and life-forms, the bird also has meaning as a spirit totem.

Here are a few lines I found on line:

“Curlew can mean new life, new beginnings, and the spark of something new. Life is a never-ending cycle and, again, this bird does not mean a death in the harshest sense, but might refer to endings and new beginnings in your life. The curlew may be heard at day, in the night, anytime.”

How fitting this meaning for the times we find ourselves in – a new era – can we hear its call?

Perhaps more importantly – how will we follow that call?

“The curlew bird is intertwined with the seasons and is a master of all four elements, earth, fire, water and air.”

Having a symbol that supports all of the elements gives us every chance of a good outcome.

This bird, like us, needs a good outcome because code ‘Red’ speaks ‘not only’ of the demise of this species but of the demise of the natural world of which we are a part.

The curlew has a special day - April 21st being World Curlew Day: https://www.northumberlandcoastaonb.org/world-curlew.../b299

- However, we need a Curlew Day every day.

Let us help protect this species, all species, and our beautiful earth.

How about we make this our new beginning - our quest to protect this earth and all of its inhabitants.

Curlew has spoken!

The reason I share these posts is to keep us connected to nature, and in some cases, to re-connect those who have strayed away from the natural world and all the incredible species and life-force that resides within in.

Until next month, when we will meet the Bullfinch (Pyrrhula Pyrrhula) let us do all we can to protect these and all of our wild birds from declining in numbers 'and those in dire straits' from extinction.

If you have any stories to share about your own bird watching or related experiences - please do share.

Article – © Susanne Austin, 13 September 2022 (* a little behind with these posts-this covers August Bird of The Month*). Note: all text written by Susanne personally unless lines or sections are stated as quoted text.

Susanne Rachel Austin writes on Personal and Environmental Wellbeing… 'Healthy People – ‘Healthy Environment’ - covering natural health and wellbeing, eco-build, sustainable, green and 'one planet' living as a business and daily lifestyle choice for all. Susanne is also the author of a daily ‘True Life Wisdom Of The Day’ shared upon several social media channels and is currently in the process of writing a book and putting together a series or workshops.

Speaking engagements are also woven into these plans. Susanne’s new website is germinating 'Quite Naturally' in-line with this creative process and will be launched as and when complete.

Susanne may be contacted through this post or via her e-mail: info@susanneaustin.co.uk