Research into nesting curlews has won student Caleb Stradling the Bishop of Norwich’s annual Ecology prize.
The £1,000 prize is awarded to the University of East Anglia student achieving the highest marks for a masters dissertation in applied ecology and conservation.
The Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, said: “As a Christian it is my calling to care for God’s creation, and it is a privilege to be able to support this kind of research. Caleb’s work is giving curlews the best chance of survival and helping make it possible that generations to come will be able to delight in the beautiful curlew call.”
Bishop Graham studied ecology at university himself and is the lead bishop for the environment for the Church of England.
Caleb, 34, said he was surprised and grateful to win the prize.
“A love of birds and ornithology brought me to Norfolk and I had the pleasure of meeting and working with many brilliant ornithologists at UEA,” he said.
He chose to study curlews after working with an organisation dedicated to saving the birds from extinction. “I became enchanted by the curlew and its evocative bubbling song,” he said. “Land-use change has led to habitat loss and degradation, putting additional pressure on the already-perilous saga of their breeding cycle, meaning that in many places curlews are not fledging enough chicks to sustain the population.”
He is now working full time for Curlew Country in Shropshire and the skills he gained in his MSc, analysing how vegetation and agricultural practises influence curlew survival, are already having an effect.
“Happily, we have had a successful year all round for the project with five chicks fledging in the wild, in addition to releasing 37 head-started curlews to reinforce the population.
“I also caught the bird ringing bug whilst working on the project so I’ve been training for that as often as I can manage.”
He plans to spend some of his prize money on equipment for bird ringing.
Professor Simon Butler, course director for the MSc in Applied Ecology and Conservation at the University of East Anglia said: “The award is a really valuable recognition of our students’ hard work. It means a lot to students who often put themselves into quite challenging financial positions in order to progress in this kind of career.
“It’s great to know that there are people who understand our work and care about what we are doing. Most of us go into this field for the public good side of things and to have people who recognise the value of what is being done is really encouraging.”
The prize is sponsored by the Anne French Memorial Trust which supports the ministry of the Bishop of Norwich, clergy in the Diocese of Norwich, and projects across Norfolk.
Pictures: Diocese of Norwich, Curlew – Bob Brewer/Unsplash, Curlew Egg – Didier Descouens/Creative Commons