Intern Cat shares highlights of her time at Insh Marshes

As the Curlew breeding season draws to a close, so does Cat Mackenzie’s time as the Curlew LIFE intern at RSPB Scotland Insh Marshes nature reserve. In her last blog, she reflects back over her time there…

Looking back at the colder months of March and April when the waders returned from their wintering grounds to the Strathspey wetlands to breed, the Curlew team got to work hosting a music and art filled event, The Wader Welcome, for locals and those from afar to celebrate the birds’ return to the area. The evening aimed to inform communities of the hardships these wonderful birds are currently facing and inspire the awareness and actions needed to help get their numbers up. A great way to start the season.

As work on the reserve continued, so did the Curlew team’s efforts to help and monitor these birds. It’s a large duty, which, without our wonderful volunteers, would’ve taken far longer and been not nearly as thorough. Having lots of team members to cover monitoring over the vast expanse of the Insh Marshes reserve is invaluable. Not only does it free up time for the team to do other important things, but it also provides far more sightings, giving a clearer and more accurate picture of the reserve’s Curlew activities.

11 April was a special day for the Curlew team this year, as it marked the first nest found on the reserve this breeding season.

One week later, on 16 April, the first of five Curious Curlew Mornings was held. These were drop-in events held at the reserve’s biggest hide, the Look-Out, along the road from Ruthven Barracks, with the aim to create awareness and engagement with this local wading species. The Curlew team of Sam McCready, Adrian Samuels and I would spend 9am until noon at the hide, welcoming members of the public to join us as we searched the reserve looking through binoculars and scopes. Guests chatted with us about the work the team carries out, issues surrounding conservation of the Curlew, and many other interesting subjects. As the

guests were leaving, we urged them to sign ‘Corrie McCurlew’, a large wooden Curlew statue that would later be taken to the Scottish Parliament, to show support for the species. The Curious Curlew events took place at different stages of the breeding season, allowing guests to see the development, right through from pairing up and having territorial disputes, to building nests and laying eggs, to chicks hatching and being spotted bumbling about the marsh.

World Curlew Day on 21 April was celebrated with a staff road trip in the Strathspey area. The Curlew team did a pop-up stall in three locations throughout the day, chatting to passers-by in the local area about Curlew conservation. The day was a success and many people opted to sign Corrie, to show their support for the species.

Other events throughout the season included a visit to the local primary school in Newtonmore, to inspire and teach local youth about the iconic bird that lives in their neighbourhood, and a whirlwind visit to Edinburgh to mingle with MPs at Holyrood, for International Day for Biological Diversity, in the hope of raising awareness about policies beneficial to saving the Curlew, and the positive knock-on effects that raising Curlew numbers has on other wildlife.

Throughout May and June the reserve was extremely busy. Nests were almost constantly being found by the team, and many eggs were starting to hatch. Each nest was mapped, measured and monitored. A few of the first nests failed due to flooding and throughout the season a fair number of nests were predated by a variety of predators, from Crows and gulls, to Pine Marten and Badgers. It’s a sign of a healthy nature reserve, working how it should, and a good number of chicks survived all the way to fledging!

In total our team was able to find 40 nests, with our final nest being found on 3 June. In 2023 there were 30 nests found, and in 2022 there were 16. While this is a good sign and shows that Insh Marshes is a great place for Curlew, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the Curlews are saved, as previous years have been affected far more by flooding, and efforts to find the nests were lower.

It’s been worked out that each Curlew pair needs to fledge one chick every other year (0.5 chicks a year) to keep a stable Curlew population, or 0.6 for their population to increase. At Insh Marshes our numbers are slowly going up but are still between 0.4 and 0.5, which means we’re not quite there yet. For the success of the Curlew and other wading birds, there is still lots of work to be done!

Looking for more Curlew information and events in Strathspey?

Keep an eye on the Cairngorms Connect social media channels (Facebook, X and Instagram) and in local newspapers.