Sensitive management of the environment means our rural estates are home to some of the largest populations of at-risk species, such as curlew and lapwing on our upland moorland habitats as well as barn owls in Cheshire.

We’re working with science-led organisations to support research and monitoring of these precious birds whose populations are in decline across the UK. This work is expanding our knowledge on their movements, productivity and survival.

Collaborating with a local barn owl group and specially trained volunteers from the British Trust for Ornithology, we helped ring 23 barn owl chicks which fledged on the Eaton Estate in Cheshire last year.

Curlew on the Abbeystead Estate in Lancashire were tagged as part of a nationwide study enabling researchers from The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Wader Tracking Appeal to better understand feeding areas, movements outside the breeding season and wintering sites.