The privately owned Elmley nature reserve is working closely with conservationists in upland areas, including the Yorkshire Dales, where curlew populations remain healthier.
As part of the curlew conservation project, eggs were carefully collected from vulnerable nests near footpaths or in fields scheduled to be cut for grass before the chicks could hatch.
The eggs were transported to Elmley on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, where they were incubated and hatched under expert care.
Curlews often return to the place where they were born to breed. Conservationists hope the released birds will eventually choose the Sheppey reserve as their nesting site and raise chicks in the wild.
Now in its fourth year, the curlew reintroduction project has released more than 100 birds at the reserve.
Fulton said the curlews that have returned are still “very young” and “take a long time to mature”.
“They’re kind of teenagers at the moment,” he told the BBC.
“We’re hoping next year they’ll just be old enough to start having their own chicks.”
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Source: www.bbc.co.uk