Saving the Curlew

This morning I went to a talk about the history of rugby Union and rugby league. The speaker dispelled the idea that William Webb Ellis created rugby by picking up a football and running with it. Absolute rubbish, said our speaker. Just a myth.
In the evening as the winds strengthened, we drove down the tree lined lanes to Bovey Tracey for a talk on curlews in Devon. The beak of the female bird is longer than the male. I checked our carved specimen. It was slightly broken once so I couldn’t say for sure whether it is male or female.