Flanders Moss NNR
What better way to celebrate than to bring Caroline back onto the bog!
She’s looking great for, what is it, 4 years old now?! She’s a robust bird, thanks to resident artist Kate Sankey’s skillful weaving and touching-up. Plus, of course, the kids of Wallace high school who helped sculpt her as part of the Forth Valley Art Beat project (see more here).
Curlews, like the ones we see and hear out in the middle of Flanders, are known to live for around 11 years. There is a record of a curlew at 32 years old! Perhaps Caroline Curlew will last another decade or so, unless a ‘Storm Arwen’ hits before we manage to get her off the bog for the winter one year.
You can read more info about World Curlew Day here.
2 bogs, a swamp and some islands 
I heard the wonderful warbling call of a curlew recently, in Glenartney near Comrie – an all too rare experience these days. It was amazing. In Scots, the curlew is a whaup, somebody with a long sharp nose is described as being whaup-nebbit. Love these birds and the world would be a sadder place without them and their amazing call.
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