A PROJECT team in Denbighshire is preparing to protect little arrivals to help an under-threat bird survive.

Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscapes is taking part in the project “Curlew Connections Wales”, a partnership project working with Bannau Brycheiniog and GWCT.

This is under the all-Wales partnership project Gylfinir Cymru, an all-Wales partnership project that aims to help breeding curlew across the country, including Denbighshire.

Curlews are under severe threat and is “red-listed” on both the Welsh and UK Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC).

READ MORE:

New Abergele banking hub celebrates its official opening

Why two people were banned from Rhyl Library

Calls to remove ‘loophole’ allowing developers to ‘scar’ Bodelwyddan

Since the 1990s, more than 80 per cent of the breeding curlew population has been lost across Wales.

A decline in numbers is due to a number of reasons including habitat loss, farming pressures during nesting season and the impact of predation on the birds.

Work is on to protect the birds across 12 areas in Wales, which is funded by Welsh Government through the Heritage Lottery fund (HLF).

Sam Kenyon is leading the work for the area which takes in large areas of Denbighshire, parts of Flintshire and parts of Wrexham.

Working alongside farmers and volunteers, Sam and her team have located nearly 30 curlew pairs and are preparing for what will be the busiest phase of the project yet.

She said: “The project is going really well, we are getting a lot of knowledge about our birds this season by getting to know them and the pairs better and how they behave thanks to the local knowledge we have in and around our communities.

“The farmers have been amazing to work with. We've had such great support which has been hugely helpful to the project.

“11 people from eight different farms recently met the team at the Berwyn Arms and the knowledge exchange was so valuable."

Working with the farmers, Sam and the team have carried out simple interventions to protect the Curlews and nests over the ICA (Important Curlew Area).

At the moment, the team are monitoring seven nests some which have seen electric fencing surrounding each nest to help keep off predators.

Sam added: “With this being our first year, doing the interventions we have taken, we’re looking to bring up the hatching rate from say 30 percent to around 90 percent successful.”

Signs of the first possible hatchings of chicks are approaching, and Sam and the team are ready to move into the next stage of protecting and monitoring the birds with the help of farmers.

The male curlew will take care of most of the chick rearing, while the females make the most of being able to feed themselves back up and regain their condition.