Posted on behalf of Andrew Holland, Farmland Project Officer in the Brecks
Stone-curlews are an amazing and instantly recognizable bird, with their large yellow eyes and long yellow legs. They fly hundreds of miles each year to areas which have stony, light sandy soils to breed in England, these include the Brecks and Suffolk Coast and a handful of other areas.
Unfortunately, there is now less suitable safe nesting habitat for stone-curlews than ever before. One way we can help the birds to nest on safe areas is through agri-environment schemes, especially the Higher Level Scheme (HLS) and possibly through the Entry Level Scheme (ELS). This requires a two hectare plot, with little vegetation being left throughout the breeding season.
Last year when I was putting together an ELS/HLS agreement for Jane, a landowner, she mentioned that stone-curlews had nested on her farm in the past. Apparently, Sam who still lives nearby, used to work on the farm when he was young in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s. He had spoken about how he used to see them regularly in the sugar beet fields on their farm and how he would lift up the weeding equipment when they came to a nest, so as not to damage the eggs.
With this in mind and the fact that we know these charismatic birds will typically arrive back to past breeding areas from one year to the next, we considered how we could entice more people who worked on the land in the past to come forward with their records.
We decided to contact the EADT with our thoughts for a story and they snapped our hand off. We contacted Robert, one of the farmers who we work closely with in the Brecks. Stone-curlews have nested on his land in the past and have steadily increased to good numbers of breeding birds and he was more than happy to be involved. We would then go over to the Suffolk Coast and meet Sam and Jane whose farm had the historical sightings. Both were very keen.
The day arrived for the Brecks visit, with myself and my colleague Tim meeting at Robert’s farm. Everything went to plan; notes and photographs (even though we had not all shaved in the morning) were taken, with Robert keen to tell his story of how the number of breeding birds had increased and the work that he was undertaking to secure its future.
Then it was off over to the Suffolk Coast, to meet up with another colleague Mel. We arrived in good time to speak to Sam and Jane before the reporter arrived and inform them of how the meeting had gone in the Brecks. We all then set off to the field where the stone-curlew had been seen in the past. Sam was full of enthusiasm as he told the reporter of his days gone by. Jane spoke of her commitment to encourage the birds back onto their farm after all these years.
It was now all down to the reporter to put the article together and then it was fingers crossed and hope that someone would come forward with some records, so we could then contact the landowners with a view of asking them to put safe nesting plots onto their land.
After sweating for a while, wondering whether any calls would come through, a call came through from Steve who believe it or not worked on stone-curlews in the 1970’/1980’s. He was happy to show us where they had nested in the past. Success! As I commented earlier, they will nest in areas they have used for years, as long as the habitat is still suitable. The problem is we do not know where these are.
Just to let you know, I have since received a phone call from Jane, whose ELS/HLS agreement started last November. A stone-curlew was seen this year (2014) on the same field where they had been seen all those years ago by Sam. Could this bird be one of the ancestors from the 1950’s/1960’s, who knows?