Exploring the landscape and looking for natural treasures awakens our inherent connection to nature and the process of research and discovery when we bring home an interesting find further deepens that bond.
Birds go through a moult at the end of summer once the energy for nesting and raising young is no longer required and before cold weather arrives. This makes September a great time of year to look for feathers.
I found these curlew feathers while poking around the shoreline of a nearby estuary. I’m no expert, but I've researched as much as I can and have a reasonable idea of which species frequent the area, so I am pretty confident they belong to the mysterious curlew.
Now that I have made this connection with the curlew I have no doubt I will look out for them and be interested to find out more. These feathers will also be a very welcome addition to my very meagre collection of mostly pigeon, crow and pheasant feathers.