NATURE lovers are being reminded to cherish one of the UK's most endangered birds.

David Hill, chair of the Northern Upland Chain Local Nature Partnership (NUCLNP) and part of a family farming in Nidderdale and Swaledale, published a letter to nature lovers to mark World Curlew Day, which was started two years ago to celebrate the bird and highlight its dramatic decline.

The Northern uplands are a core breeding area of the curlew, and while it is now one of the UK's most endangered birds, has a stable population in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Mr Hill said: "To hear the first calling curlews is awe-inspiring and bodes of the spring to come. This year they arrived amidst the wettest winter on record and no doubt found plenty of worms.

But the ground is so hard now that they can only forage in wet flashes where a spring carries water to the surface. The dryness and lack of growth of the grass sward is delaying their breeding – we need rain desperately – something I certainly wasn’t saying in the middle of February.

"I get so much pleasure from watching them almost hover, wings in a ‘v’ shape as they descend to the ground calling vociferously. And those haunting long-monosyllabic calls that seem to pose a question about what is happening to them out there in the wild, a ‘suspicious’ call without a conclusion.

"They seem to have their own complex language, or at least I like to think so."

He added: "We at the Northern Upland Chain Local Nature Partnership have all felt the impact of these current lockdown restrictions but aim to bring you stories and glimpses of nature in the uplands over the forthcoming months to help cheer you soul or simply distract you from whatever your concerns might be.

"Once this is over, and who knows at this stage what that statement means, there will be a need to reconnect with the wider outdoors. The curlew conservation project we have been developing may also serve a new purpose through helping people to reconnect but also heal after what will for many be a very personally challenging time.

"Nature has a way of calming us and the curlew with its haunting call is certainly no exception."

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority – a member of the NUCLNP – has sought to engage people in the story of this special bird species, celebrating the moment in February they returned to the hills to breed, and earlier this month recording their haunting call in upper Wensleydale.

Ian McPherson, the National Park Authority’s member champion for natural environment, said: “World Curlew Day gives me the chance to say how much I, along with many other people, cherish the nationally important numbers of curlew that are still present in northern upland areas such as the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

"The National Park Authority is one of a range of stakeholders, including landowners and managers, who are working together to try to conserve the curlew for generations to come.”