Curlew (Numenius arquata)

The curlew is the largest European wading bird, instantly recognisable on winter estuaries or summer moors with its long down-curved bill, brown upper-parts and long legs. There have been worrying breeding declines in many areas largely due to loss of habitat through agricultural intensification.

I took this photograph from a hide positioned close to the nest site. The hide was introduced to the bird over a period of a week and did not cause any problems to either of the adult birds. The pair hatched four chicks and although I missed the hatching I saw the chicks regularly over the following weeks.

I converted the photograph to monochrome because I knew that due to the limited colour range in the original image it would make a pleasing image. This was done using a channel mixer adjustment channel, my normal method (see other monochrome images for a simple 'how to' description.)

View colour image