Matt Trevelyan may have found his (bird) calling.
The former puppet maker and current farming officer for Nidderdale National Landscape in Yorkshire, England, turned heads over the weekend when he ventured out into nature dressed as a giant bird.
It wasn’t just any bird, but a 10-foot-long, handmade costume of the Eurasian curlew, Europe’s largest wading bird known for its thin, lengthy beak and declining population.
Over the weekend, Trevelyan took off on a 53-mile (85-kilometer) sojourn along Nidderdale Way to raise awareness for the species’ decline.
The costume — affectionately called “Cathy the Curlew” — was made out of polystyrene and bamboo, and the unique challenge began right on time for World Curlew Day on April 21.
The holiday was created in 2017 to raise awareness about habitat loss, land-use changes, and climate change, which are all impacting the bird.
For Trevelyan, it was as much an art project as it was a conservation effort.
“Those who know me well know I was eventually going to build a giant curlew,” he told The BBC. “She’s a real beauty. I wanted to represent curlews well because they’re such a beautiful bird.”
“I’ve always made giant puppets,” Trevelyan added to The Independent. “And I’m prone to saying things like: ‘I'll walk the Nidderdale Way dressed as a curlew,’ and then you’ve got to do it.”
And that he did.
The trek took about two days, as Trevelyan started his journey at Pateley Bridge on Saturday and finished it on Sunday at Brimham Rocks. Along the way, press coverage helped elevate the call to action to protect the species, as did Trevelyan’s conversations with onlookers.
“I'm really worried [about the curlew],” he told The Independent. “Every nest, chick, and egg matters.”
The area where he hiked has previously been a “stronghold” for curlews, though they have experienced massive population decline over the years. The bird was added to the U.K. Red List of highest conservation concern in 2015.
“We need something like 10,000 more curlews a year to become a sustainable population,” Trevelyan added. “We need curlews to be fledging one chick every two years, and they lay four eggs a year that generally don’t fledge any chicks.
“One chick every other year. That’s all we need to have a sustainable population, but we’re a long way off that.”
Trevelyan said that the country’s Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs needed to take more serious action to protect the species.
This comes alongside similar sentiments from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which released an action plan to save U.K. curlews from extinction on World Curlew Day.
“We are calling for urgent action to halt the decline of Curlews and, in particular, government support for farmers to help protect their nests and chicks, and ensure the birds have suitable habitat, where they can find food and breed,” the organization wrote in its plan.
Trevelyan’s work at Nidderdale National Landscape — beyond donning a conversation starter of a costume — includes helping farmers and contractors manage their lands and protect nests, as well as supporting the organization’s population of breeding curlew.
He has also provided guidelines for members of the public to help protect the species.
“We all have the power to change outcomes for curlew,” Trevelyan said in a statement earlier this month. “The National Landscape team has a range of positive actions that everyone can take part in. From simple everyday actions like keeping dogs on leads to more involved efforts such as habitat management, there are many ways to support curlew conservation.”
Trevelyan’s show-stopping costume was his own special way of supporting the birds’ conservation.
Navigating the “tunnel vision” of the costume’s 4-foot-long curved bill, he managed to make it to the end of his migration, raising funds for Nidderdale National Landscape along the way.
“[The costume] is very lightweight, luckily,” he told The BBC. “I am a bit worried about getting up on the tops because it’s quite windy today.”
Although he didn’t succumb to the breeze, Trevelyan said he would have been happy to see the world from the curlew’s point of view.
“If it takes off, that's a victory,” he joked to The BBC. “If I’ve made something that can fly, that’s really good news.”
Header image courtesy of Matt Trevelyan
