Interview: Tim Cleeves on the Slender-billed Curlew

As we discussed in yesterday’s post (The Search for the Slender-billed Curlew) the Slender-billed Curlew Numenuis tenuirostris is one of 192 bird species designated as Critically Endangered - meaning that it is considered to be facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. Only one breeding site has ever been confirmed, but the species was once found in large wintering flocks in the wetlands of southern Europe and North Africa and was seen on passage in many eastern European countries ...

. For reasons that are still not entirely clear - but are most likely linked to over-hunting - it has declined massively, to the extent that the last verified record was in 2001.

In this interview I talk with Tim Cleeves about the ‘last push’ to discover whether the species still exists, what will be done if/when one or more is found - and what’s it’s like to look out of a hide in north-east England and realise you’re looking at a Slender-billed Curlew…

Tim Cleeves: “I’ve been a keen birder for over forty years, resident in the UK and with particular interests in waders, watching seabirds, conservation issues and chasing rarities.

A lot of my working life was spent with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB, the UK BirdLife International Partner), mainly as a Conservation Officer. The work was very varied, and involved working with farmers, planners, other conservation bodies and people in industry to try to enhance habitats, particularly wetlands.

I’m now volunteering for the RSPB, involved in helping out the RSPB’s Nicola Crockford and working with BirdLife partners in the search for the Slender-billed Curlew. I am also work encouraging birders and photographers to go out to search for Slender-billed Curlews.”

It was this meeting with Alan Tilmouth, Tim Cleeves, and Simon Delany (Wetlands International)

at the British Birdwatching Fair that led to this interview don’t you know…

Charlie: Tim, you’re the ‘database and fieldwork coordinator of the Slender-billed Curlew Working Group (SBCWG)’. For the benefit of our readers what is the SBCWG and what does your role entail?

TC: The Slender-billed Curlew Working Group was formed in 1997 in the framework of the 1994 intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding concerning conservation measures for the Slender-billed Curlew under the United Nations Convention on Migratory Species. After a period of dormancy since 2002 the Working Group was relaunched in December 2008. It now has more than 350 governmental and non-governmental representatives from about 75 countries. The Group is chaired by Nicola Crockford of the RSPB and has a Steering Group comprising representatives of the Convention on Migratory Species, African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement, Wetlands International, British Trust for Ornithology, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, WIWO Foundation Working Group International Wader and Waterfowl Research and the international hunters’ organisations FACE and CIC.

The Slender-billed Curlew Working Group has recently moved up a gear to try to engage with wider audiences in the quest to try to find the bird. There is a database containing all the known records back into the 1800’s (including museum specimens) – Graeme Buchanan of the RSPB is in charge of the database now and he is much, much more ’savvy’ when it comes to electronic storage systems than me! Anyone can interrogate the database by going to www.slenderbilledcurlew.net and following the links.

I am also a member of the SBCWG International Verification Panel (IVP) which exists to verify new records of Slender-billed Curlew. The focus is on records since 1995 and especially reports that still may be present; the IVP aims to reach an opinion on any such report within 24 hours to enable an appropriate response from the SBC rapid reaction teams ie aiming to catch and satellite tag the bird.

Charlie: As you said, the SBCWG was founded in 1997 but became dormant between 2003-2008: what caused that and why did it start up again?

TC: The Slender-billed Curlew Working Group fell dormant partly because funding for it from the Conservation of Migratory Species Convention (CMS) and EU ran dry and partly due to an absence of new sightings, which may have been linked.

In summer 2008, when Nicola Crockford was asked to become the new chair of the group, it was decided that the time was right for one last push to try and find the Slender-billed Curlew and save it before it is too late. The search depends on having satellite tags small enough to fit on a Slender-billed Curlew and those had not been available before. Likewise developments in digital photography since 2001 also makes the search more feasible; nowadays a record would be highly unlikely to be accepted without a conclusive photograph or sound-recording.

The database was still being maintained by BirdLife International during this period though and some expeditions were carried out – both in the former breeding areas in western Siberia and in some of the passage/wintering areas – such as the Ukraine. An International Action Plan – final draft – was completed in August 2002 (under the umbrella of the CMS) and this work remains the key document in helping summarise the ecology, status and conservation action needed in the bird’s range states. I think the recent impetus has been brought about by a number of keen wader enthusiasts realising that more pro-active work needed to be done and the lack of recent reports has certainly fuelled that.

Charlie: The Slender-billed Curlew, to quote from the RSPB website, is “Europe and the Western Palearctic’s rarest bird”. It was once quite common though, outnumbering Eurasian Curlews Numenius arquatus and Whimbrels N. phaeopus in some areas. Do we know the reasons for its decline?

TC: The simple answer is no, we do not know why this species has declined to such a drastic extent. Some accounts from the last two centuries describe the bird as occurring in huge flocks, high up on the shore and being confiding so they may have been especially vulnerable to hunting following the advent of the shotgun etc in the mid nineteenth century – birds being taken for food. Hunting pressure in parts of North Africa continued even into the 1990’s when at least one of the famous wintering birds at Merja Zerga Morocco was shot, and in Europe even between 1962 and 1987 17 Slender-billed Curlews were shot (13 of these in Italy and the former Yugoslavia).

Changes in breeding, wintering and passage habitats need to be examined too. As any current breeding areas are not known it is not possible to speculate how habitat changes maybe affecting birds. Climate change – especially drought - influencing the state of Siberian forest steppe habitats may well be a factor. In former wintering areas man has executed great changes – for example the Rharb plain in north-west Morocco has been drained extensively, flood control and water storage schemes in Tunisia may also have impacted on suitable wintering and stop-over sites. In the Middle East the former Iraq marshes have also suffered – by 2000 there was only 3.1% of the central wetlands which was present in 1973.

There is also speculation that, like the Eskimo Curlew N. borealis of North America, slender-bills may have been dependent on orthoptera [grasshoppers, crickets, locusts] that have now declined dramatically.

Pointing the finger. The Slender-billed Curlew was really never widespread - the question now is ‘Does it still exist, or have we shot it into extinction?”. The SBCWG aim to find out…

Charlie: Am I right in saying- as I read while researching this interview - that in the past 20 years there have been at least 17 expeditions, all unsuccessful, to try to locate Slender-billed Curlew at wintering, staging, and breeding sites?

TC: In fact not all of the past expeditions were unsuccessful, only the ones in the breeding grounds. For example four out of eight WIWO-projects during 1987 - 2000 found SBCs in Morocco, Tunisia, and Albania, including the first ever field study by Arnoud van den Berg in 1988 (commissioned by ICBP [a previous incarnation of BirdLife International]). And there was a Tunisia - Algeria survey in the early 90s which found a bird in Algeria.

Charlie: Since then there’s been just one record - in Hungary. Let’s get straight to the all-important question. It’s been eight years since a verifiable sighting: do you really think the species still survives somewhere?

TC: The Hungarian Rarities Committee accepted a record from April 2001, which was indeed eight years ago, but there have been subsequent possible but unverified reports of this Critically Endangered bird from countries such as Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Morocco, Egypt, Hungary, Albania, Monte-negro, Portugal, India (Gujarat) and most recently Iraq (December 2008).

I certainly believe we should make a really strenuous effort over the next two or three years to check sites carefully and see if we can’t find some Slender-billed Curlews. Many of the expeditions in recent years have been to the remote areas of western Siberia looking for possible breeding sites. The current effort is concentrating on possible wintering areas – particularly in North Africa and on potential autumn moult sites around the Aral, Caspian, Azov and Black Seas: these non-breeding areas are considered less of a ‘needle in a haystack’ to search than the breeding grounds and the birds are more likely to stay in wintering and moulting areas long enough to get catching and tagging teams out to them.

The chances are that the bird has been overlooked due to the identification challenges it poses, the fact that it uses habitats relatively unfrequented by birders eg feeding on agricultural land a mile inland and then roosting out of sight on distant intertidal habitat for example. Also, a considerable amount of potential Slender-billed Curlew habitat eg in Algeria, Libya, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Oman has tended to be inaccessible to birders.

The fact that in recent years, there have been discoveries of much more conspicuous globally threatened birds within the range of the Slender-billed Curlew gives additional grounds for optimism eg 3000 Sociable Lapwings in Turkey when the world population was thought to be 200 pairs, a colony of Northern Bald Ibises in Syria when Morocco was thought to have the only population of the species, and the 20,000 Gurney’s Pittas in Myanmar when the species was thought to be on the brink of extinction in Thailand.

Charlie: So there is a real hope that the Slender-billed Curlew may be using areas that are rarely-visited by birders such as sites in the Middle East and North Africa - ie they survive (probably in tiny numbers) but we’re just not seeing them?

TC: Yes, there are a number of countries which are not regularly on the birder’s radar and which deserve attention but there are plans to cover them all within the next year or two. The SBC Working Group has produced a SBC search protocol which outlines methods most likely to turn up the birds. Searchers are advised to focus on habitats and sites not regularly checked by birders.

Charlie: Given the ever-rising number of skilled birders active in the Gulf - and the ever-shrinking suitable habitat there - is it really likely that birds are getting through the Middle East unseen?

TC: Well, there is no doubt that there are a number of highly skilled birders operating in the Middle East but many of the potential areas to search are vast and I would not rule out some Slender-billed Curlew sneaking through. This winter, resident birders in all countries of the Middle East are making a special effort to search for the bird and there are plans for international expeditions to the larger countries either this winter or next for example in Oman, Iran, Iraq, Yemen. Copies of the Slender-billed Curlew Working Group identification guide are being distributed in Arabic as well as English and French as appropriate.

Slender-billed Curlew (left) and Eurasian Curlew, Yemen, Jan 1984

Photograph copyright Richard Porter

Charlie: You mentioned two other Critically Endangered species which have recently been found in the same general region: Sociable Lapwing and Northern Bald Ibis. Finding them was a real cause for celebration, but it’s also the fact that they’ve both been impacted by uncontrolled hunting. More than half of the 617 verified 20th century records come from four countries - Italy, Greece, Morocco, and Hungary - all of which are renowned for illegal or improperly controlled hunting. We birders may not be going to the ‘right’ sites, but aren’t the chances worryingly high that hunters will be?

TC: That’s difficult to quantify accurately. Certainly, local hunters will know the wetlands and other areas they operate in very well, and I think the more local knowledge we can gain the better. FACE – the Federation of Associations for Hunting and Conservation of the EU and CIC, the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation, are on the Steering Group of the Slender-billed Curlew Working Group and are helping to promote the search among their members. Furthermore, in the event of any Slender-billed Curlew turning up, they are on standby to work with local hunters to protect the birds.

The SBCWG and partners will keep trying to highlight the rarity and vulnerability of Slender-billed Curlew (and Sociable Lapwing and Northern Bald Ibis) by working with local naturalists and birders in the range countries and increasing awareness through publicity. Also, AEWA, the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement of CMS is planning to undertake a mission to Syria to discuss with the authorities what can be done to control hunting there and CMS is contacting Saudi Arabia for similar discussions in follow up to the Northern Bald Ibis case.

Charlie: There’s obviously a great deal of work going on ‘behind-the-scenes’ which is great to learn, Tim. Thanks for letting us know. The Slender-billed Curlew is already given the highest level of protection under relevant international treaties, but given the impossibility of having enough ‘wardens’ available to watch birds for 24 hours a day, if you actually find a Slender-billed Curlew how you will protect it/them?

TC: The guidance in the draft Slender-billed Curlew Search Protocol is that once a bird is located, it should be watched at least dawn to dusk until it leaves the site. If resources are available I think we will probably want to pay wardens to keep an eye on the bird(s). Some of the SBCWG volunteers are retired and there is an opportunity for people to extend their stay in the ‘host’ country until the bird(s) move on. If we are successful in locating any Slender-billed Curlew we will want to work with local contacts to quickly investigate the possibility of catching the bird or birds and attaching a light weight satellite tag (specially developed for the job).

We must learn from the past and ensure that we involve, train and inspire local people to look after any Slender-billed Curlew. Look at the great progress made with Northern Bald Ibis over recent years: this shows that local people will respond very positively when the right approaches are made.

Additionally the SBCWG has governmental contacts in most range states who we are priming to be on stand by to permit the catching/tagging and afford any birds found the top level of protection, from over-enthusiastic birders as well as hunters!

Charlie: You’ve referred to plans for attaching satellite transmitters on any Slender-billed Curlew that’s found. That would be an incredibly exciting development, but given that it could be one of the last individuals on earth and there’s always a (small) risk in capturing and handling birds would it be advisable?

TC: Yes, as said before this is the plan and indeed there is

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