CURLEWS are back on song across Scotland’s grouse moors, as Scottish gamekeepers report a rise in sightings across the country.
The curlew is Europe’s largest wading bird, instantly recognisable by their long down-curved bill, brown plumage, long spindly legs and distinctive call from which it derives its name.
Its population has declined in recent years due to a loss of suitable breeding habitats, which has been put down to more intensive agricultural methods, climate change and predation. Last year it was deemed ‘at risk’ and placed on the British Trust for Ornithology’s red list as a species of ‘highest conservation concern’.