Charity to raise £25k in six weeks to save Curlews

Donations will go towards electric fencing to protect nests and giving Curlew chicks the best conditions.

A charity has said it hopes to raise £25,000 in six weeks to help protect an endangered bird species in the county.

Wild Oxfordshire aims to raise the money within the same time it takes Curlew chicks to become adults and take their first flight.

Donations will go towards supporting the charity's volunteers and the county's farmers. It will also help provide electric fencing to protect more nests and give the chicks the best conditions to survive.

Wild Oxfordshire's Curlew Lead, Mike Pollard, said the county was home to 10% of the UK's remaining lowland population, so it was important to keep protecting the "beloved birds".

He added that over the last five years, the charity has protected 110 nests using temporary electric fencing, which he said resulted in a 74% hatching success rate.

As a result, 61 young curlews went on to take flight.

However, Mr Pollard said they still needed more support to help "sustain the population for the future".

He said: "Curlews are one of our most beloved birds, and their haunting call has inspired artists, poets, farmers and nature-lovers for generations."

Oxfordshire is home to 10% of the UK's remaining lowland population

According to the RSPB, the number of curlews across the UK is "perilously low" with a 48% decline in population between 1995 and 2020 due to habitat loss and poor nesting success.

Mr Pollard said: "Locally, [their] decline has largely been driven by loss of wetland and meadow habitat, intensive grassland management practices, predation from animals such as foxes and crows and the impacts of building and transport developments.

"We are still at risk of losing Curlews and their wonderful evocative calls from Oxfordshire's meadows and wetlands forever, " he said.

So far, the charity has raised £7,080 on its fundraising page but Mr Pollard said they had also secured match funding of up to £10,000 from both the Trust for Oxfordshire's Environment and the Aviva Community Fund.