OPINION (AN COLÚN): Iconic Shannon Callows bird only given five to ten years until extinction

THE BEAUTIFUL CURLEW, whose gorgeous bubbling call has been an indelible part of the Shannon Callows for millennia, is being predicted by experts that it will become extinct within five to ten years.
If this comes to pass then it will be tragic and poignant, a similar occurrence to another major environmental setback in the Callows which happened several years ago, namely the extinction of the corncrake.
In the early '90s the Callows had the biggest breeding population of the corncrake in Ireland. However, the bird's numbers began to plummet during the early part of that decade and, in spite of governmental incentives for landowners, the decline could not be halted. The last calling male in the Callows was recorded in 2014.
I mourned the loss, feeling it deeply. Over many summers I enjoyed walking along the Callows near Banagher and listening to the magic of the corncrake's call in the midst of the beauty of warm, starlit nights.
When I am listening to iconic birds such as corncrakes or curlews out in the peace of an Irish landscape at night, the world with its activity and problems, with its stress and lack of sympathy, recedes into the background and is replaced with calm and depth. Yeats' lovely line “peace comes dropping slow” is a perfect description of the feeling.
I still enjoy night-time walks along the callows and I still enjoy the beauty and peace of the scene, but there is a big difference. It's an awful loss, which has greatly impoverished our natural heritage.
A couple of generations ago corncrakes were a common presence in much of the Irish landscape, their rasping calls synonymous with pleasantly warm summer nights. Now they have been reduced to just 197 calling males located in Donegal, Mayo and islands off Connemara.
Several years ago, campaigners began pointing out that it was a similarly depressing story for curlews, as well as other waders. There are currently just over a hundred breeding pairs of curlews in the Republic of Ireland. “The curlew is one of the most iconic birds of the Irish countryside,” said a Birdwatch Ireland spokesman this month. “Sadly, it has suffered drastic declines of over 97% in recent years and, without help, will become extinct as a breeding species in Ireland within five to ten years.”

The curlew's haunting call, which seems to embody the spirit of wild places, is a very special thing. I remember walking for several hours on Inchydoney island in Cork and seeing a large number of curlews in the estuary. Seeing them and hearing their sound was a magical moment. Many poems have been written about this haunting sound. One poet wrote, memorably: “What other sound could be like this? / Which other note could trespass on / to where the likes of tears are formed?
“What else speaks so well / of wilderness, of loneliness? / Which alternate voice could manifest this desolate deliverance?
“Such trifling themes as life and death / are kept in Curlew's calls..."
For Yeats, the call reminded him of the severing of relationships: “O curlew, cry no more in the air / Or only to the water in the West. / Because your crying brings to my mind / passion-dimmed eyes and long heavy hair / That was shaken out over my breast: / There is enough evil in the crying of wind.”
The curlew, like the corncrake, has been reduced drastically because of the degradation of habitats (due to afforestation and farming practices). Predation by crows and foxes is also a problem.
A group set up by the government, called the Curlew Task Force, points out in a report that, “Saving the Curlew from extinction in Ireland is one of the greatest conservation challenges faced by Ireland.”
The Curlew Task Force strongly recommends the use of “Headstarting” to try and deal with the problem. Headstarting is a conservation technique for endangered species, in which young animals are raised artificially and subsequently released into the wild.
The Task Force identifies that the Curlew Conservation Programme, established in 2017 and focusing on action and research, should continue to be supported, and as soon as practicable, upscaled and expanded. "It is recognised," said the group, "that improvements to existing schemes are required to make them most effective for the Curlew. Together, with existing measures such as agri-environment schemes and EU programmes such as the Curlew EIP (European Innovation Partnerships), this could provide a coherent programme of State and EU funded measures." Working closely with the farming community, the EIP project aims to develop and trial new and innovative approaches to stem the decline of the Irish breeding Curlew population.