extinction should be a Welsh wake-up call

Slender-billed Curlew in Morocco, 1995 (Chris Gomersall, rspb-images.com)

A new report suggests that the Slender-billed Curlew is now globally extinct. The last documented record was in Morocco in 1995; I remember the RSPB’s Chris Gomersall returning with photographs of that individual, having no idea I was most likely looking at the last of its kind, of a species I could never see. If the report is adopted by international authorities, Slender-billed Curlew will be the first extinction of a bird species in Europe/North Africa since Canarian Oystercatcher prior to 1940 and the flightless Great Auk in 1844.

It is sobering news for everyone committed to saving the related Eurasian Curlew as a breeding bird in Wales, and that should include Welsh Government ministers developing the Sustainable Farming Scheme. The Cri’r Gyfinir LIFE project, which has worked in Hiraethog and Ysbyty Ifan for the last four years, ends next month with a specially-commissioned film Curlew Custodians that shows how farmers across the UK have helped the birds. A free online screening and talks have been arranged for next Tuesday 3 December at 7pm. Visit the project website to reserve a place.

For more about Curlew recovery work underway in Wales, read my recent column on a conference organised by Gylfinir Cymru.

My own return from several weeks of travelling coincided with the first widespread snowfall and Storm Bert. Far smaller arrivals include Firecrests from continental Europe: two at Llyn Parc Mawr on Anglesey and Llangwstenin, near Mochdre, and others in Bangor and Llanbedrog. Purple Sandpipers returned to their regular haunts near Rhos Point and Cemlyn Bay.

The changing conditions will have been difficult for summer migrants that should be in Africa: a late Wheatear at Aled Isaf Reservoir and three Swallows over the A55 across Anglesey’s Inland Sea last week. Chiffchaffs, including one of the Siberian form at Llyn Cefni, are likely to spend the winter here.

Scaup, Velvet Scoter, Long-tailed Duck and Surf Scoter have joined the wintering flock of Common Scoters off Colwyn Bay. Two Slavonian Grebes were off Aber Ogwen, a Black-throated Diver at Rhos Point last week and a Cattle Egret was near Llanfrothen. Snow Buntings remain on the Great Orme, with up to seven here over the weekend. A couple were at Llanddona recently and another on Moel Famau, below which Crossbills feed in the forestry – a species unusual in that birds can nest through the winter if there is an abundant supply of fruiting pine cones.​