By Anne Pickles

Last updated 14:25, Saturday, 17 May 2008

THREE pairs of home-loving curlews have emerged as the latest obstacle in Carlisle Airport’s development plans.

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All flights on hold: Curlew's nest before and after chicks have hatched. Three pairs are nesting at Carlisle Airport

Richard Gordon peers over the upper rims of his spectacles and sighs.

Only the little twinkle in his eye reveals he has found a needle of comedy in the haystack of his latest infuriating frustration.

He has lost an argument and unwittingly gained a family of six very demanding birds. Neither is pleasing enough to write home about... but still he can’t help smiling.

“I’ve been cornered by the curlews,” he says with resignation. “It’s quite astonishing really; somehow ridiculous. But only the birds are laughing.”

There can be no denying that. Indeed the birds must be laughing loudly, gleefully and with the feather-ruffling self-satisfaction of lottery jackpot winners.

Three nesting pairs of curlews have thrown a spanner into the works of already difficult plans to invest £35 million in development of a fully-functioning, modern city airport.

They have made very comfy homes right where it’s most inconvenient and unless Richard can learn to live with curlews in his check-in halls – which is unlikely – he’s going to have to find them somewhere else to live... at a cost of about £250,000.

He raises an eyebrow as he rolls out the rest of his duty to the half dozen birds calling all current shots on Stobart Air’s efforts to drag Carlisle into the 21st century.

Not only must the company create a new habitat for the curlews before development can get underway but that alternative nesting site must be managed and maintained – as any smart home should be – and the curlews, their babies, extended family and any visiting in-laws must be protected for the foreseeable future.

That could be a long time, since these particular wading birds can live happily and healthy into great old age and their offspring tend to stay home with mum and dad for as long as possible.

As a consequence, Richard – highly qualified, supremely professional, contributing shaper of Carlisle’s future – is about to become adoptive father to three pairs of particularly demanding nesting birds.

Given his current mood, it seems cruel to ask him whether he has yet heard a curlew greeting him with a joyful: “Daddy, you’re home!” But the temptation is enough to make teeth ache.

And so he sighs. The problems of bringing the airport even this far along the planning approval route – and no one is in the arrivals hall yet – have been well recorded and minutely reported.

There have been tense meetings, noisy protests, fierce fall-outs and delicate negotiations to agreed compromise.

The concerns and interests of great crested newts, bats and badgers – even dead ones – have had to be accounted for. Woodland, grassland, hedgerows have all had their say.

“The curlews though sort of caught us blind-side,” said Richard.

“Three pairs! At first it was suggested they would need 600 acres – that’s nearly a square mile. I think that might have been negotiated down somewhat. But even so...

“I’ve been tempted to ask privately whether such passionate concern for their accommodation has been reasonable or proportionate.

“There are 10,500 nesting pairs in Cumbria, more than 35,500 across the country. But needs must, I suppose. I can see we are going to have to agree to providing a new home for these six birds. This is a known wildlife site. So be it.”

Well, not quite. Cumbria Wildlife Trust, whose raison d’etre is to protect and champion the cause of all creatures choosing to call this county home (apart perhaps from people with aeroplanes) has been instrumental in securing the best possible deal for the little community of curlews.

But even the Trust’s conservation manager David Harpley – their estate agent, if you like – admits his clients can be a bit difficult.

To the average curlew location, location, location is everything. Relocation is not high on its wish-list and anyone who reckons on persuading a nesting pair and its neighbours to up sticks and move, even to a new desirable residence in upwardly mobile area, is on a hiding to nothing.

“There’s no way the birds can be encouraged to move to a new habitat,” said David.

“They won’t be cajoled or coaxed from home. Curlews are dogged creatures of habit and once they have found a site they are happy to call home, they tend to stay there and they keep their young close for quite some time. They are very faithful to their immediate environment.

“Curlews have odd ways of going about things. Who knows how these six will deal with the disruption?

But it may well be that these particular birds will ignore the new site and just move on anyway to breed somewhere else entirely.”

So, what’s the point of the expensive removal plan then?

“The newly created habitat will perhaps be occupied by other wading birds fond of the same sort of location. The point is really one of mitigation. Without detailing too much of the bureaucracy involved, there is a legal requirement that when one established nesting site is displaced another alternative site must be created.”

David does point out that the curlew population has been declining for decades, largely due to changing farming methods. There have been big declines in Cumbria.

The RSPB reports that they are seen around the whole UK coastline with the largest concentrations found at Morecambe Bay, the Solway Firth, the Wash, and the Dee, Severn, Humber and Thames estuaries.

Greatest breeding numbers are found in North Wales, the Pennines, the southern uplands and East Highlands of Scotland and the Northern Isles.

“At this time of the year they are breeding,” said David.

“In fact we saw the airport’s curlews during our site meeting there last Friday – along with lapwing, oystercatchers and redshank.

“In no way does the Trust take a stance on the desirability or otherwise of the airport’s development.

“We simply want to ensure that any wildlife displaced or disturbed by building work or operations is properly protected and alternative habitats are provided.

“It’s not a matter of the airport being good or bad. It is that it will bring change which will impact on natural life unless care is taken to make provision for existing wildlife living on site.”

Richard Gordon might well sigh.

All this bird life guardianship stuff is really quite new to him.

And to be fair, it has to be a bit galling for anyone to save up £250,000 for a new home for six curlews, fully expecting them to turn up their beaks at it and go live in somebody else’s field – leaving lapwings to claim squatters’ rights.

“Did I tell you we also have to guard all excavation work so badgers don’t fall down the holes?” he asked.

He did. But a man whose career path has taken an unexpected turn to towards Wind in the Willows can be forgiven for repeating himself.

Especially when he knows in his heart of hearts that the last laugh is already claimed by half a dozen curlews, watching humans arguing, negotiating, compromising and writing cheques for mitigating homes they won’t want.

Loudly and heartily, they chuckle their little socks off at the man-made games of wildlife sitcom.