Back in early April we posted about the remarkable appearance of Stone Curlew on Spring passage with a bird on the beach at Widewater followed by another sighting at Sompting Brooks, both of which were only seen by the original finders. This is a secretive wader which breeds in very small numbers on stony farmland or heaths in southern England and is seldom seen away from a few publicised protected breeding sites, due to its largely nocturnal lifestyle.
Fast forward to Monday 27th July and Ralph Simpson was completing one of his regular early visits to his Goring Gap patch. Much to his surprise at about 06:45 he flushed a Stone Curlew from the beach, which flew low towards Sea Lane Cafe where it appeared to land. Despite searching it couldn’t be relocated, so once again after a great local find the trail went cold and the wait went on for a more obliging bird within the Worthing 10km area.
However this proved to be short lived as on Monday 3rd August Richard Phillips was out searching his local area for an early Whinchat or Wheatear. He had drawn a blank until he reached the River Adur, near Botolphs, when while scanning the far sheepfields he picked up a distant wader in the haze. He felt it looked good for a Stone Curlew and quickly crossed the bridge to close the distance and minimise the heat distortion. Viewing from the east bank he was delighted to confirm his suspicions as he enjoyed scope views of a “boggle eyed” Stone Curlew.
Having been found at about 10:30 the Stone Curlew did the decent thing and remained in the sheep field all day, though could be tricky to see well particularly when sat down in the grasses. It proved to be a very popular bird with a steady stream of admirers throughout the rest of the day. By early evening the light was perfect, the haze much reduced and as the temperature cooled the Stone Curlew became much more active chasing after its large insect prey and avoiding the unwelcome attention from the local corvids.
Stone Curlew - Botolphs Sheep Fields (Nick Oliver)
So remarkably there have now been at least three and possibly four birds within our 10km this year, and this early August sighting ties in with a number of other national records of birds moving south.
Not suprisingly the bird moved on overnight presumably continuing its southbound migration.
