Madam, – In reference to Michael Viney’s eloquent article outlining the disappearance of the Irish curlew habitat (“Disappearing moorland leaves curlews homeless”, Weekend Review, December 11th), I have great news.
On the morning of December 10th I had the good fortune to be at Dundalk stadium exercising a racehorse which was running that evening. After a light piece of exercise, we pulled up and I couldn’t but notice a half a dozen or more curlews in the inner track area going about their business on the foggy morning. They made their presence known with their distinctive racket, no doubt music to a bird lover’s ear and certainly calming to the horse I was riding.
These curlew – I don’t know if they lived there or were a particular punting curlew eyeing the evening’s entries exercising on the racetrack, but they certainly looked quite at home and for from homeless. Birdwatch’s “cry of the curlew” be advised, it appears it would take more than a stadium development to shift a Louth curlew. – Yours, etc,