One of Minsmere's most elusive birds has been on show today, allowing visitors the rare chance to see a google-eyed plover. Never heard of one? How about wailing heath chicken? Or Eurasian thick-knee? Perhaps the name stone-curlew will be more familiar.
Stone-curlews are scarce birds, easily disturbed, and requiring an unusual combination of habitats that means that they are one of the trickiest birds to find in the UK. Most of our birds breed in either Breckland or the Wessex Downs, with just a handful fo pairs on the Suffolk coast - but that wasn't always the case!
In the 19th century, they were widespread on the Suffolk Sandlings heaths, probably breeding in every parish between Kessingland and Felixstowe. However, a combination of habitat loss and increasing human populations saw a gradual decline to just a single pair on the coast by the 1990s. Something had to be done, so the RSPB and Natural England began a programme of habitat creation and working with landowners to create optimal conditions, resulting in the current coastal population of about seven pairs.
At Minsmere, we slowly reverted former arable fields back to Sandlings heath, creating ideal habitat for stone-curlews: short, rabbit-grazed, sandy acid grassland. In 2003 a pair returned to breed at Minsmere for the first time since the 1960s. Last year we had five pairs, but we couldn't show them to visitors as they are so easily disturbed.
This morning, one of our volunteers spotted two stone-curlews close to Minsmere's entrance road, so we opened an impromptu viewing point. The birds have obliged, with one of them showing well at times, but at other times it disappears into a hollow where its camouflage made it impossible to see. As they are mainly crepescular (active at dawn and dusk), they spend most of the day sitting around, doing very little, before uttering their strange curlew-like calls at dusk. Will they still be there tomorrow?
They've not been the only scarce birds on view today, as at least two red kites have been seen over the reedbed, while spoonbills were on the Scrape yesterday. A wheatear was in same field as the stone-curlews and a whitethroat serenaded us all morning.