We are right in the middle of the busiest period for the Stone-curlew monitoring staff, with new nests being discovered and chicks hatching left right and centre. Recently I spent the day with Craig, one of the seasonal project assistants, to see what a typical day monitoring Stone-curlew plots involves.
We set out in the morning, with the intention of staying out until last light, however work is always weather dependant. The day was breezy and cloudy, ideal for trying to pick out perfectly camouflaged birds from a distance, too sunny and the glare through the telescope and heat haze on the ground make it nearly impossible to work during the middle of the day.
I immediately feel the effects of being away from the office, with lush grassland spreading into the distance and big skies above, seemingly full of babbling skylarks; I fill my lungs with fresh air and feel privileged to be out in the beautiful Wiltshire countryside. I could hear yellowhammer, spotted a hare, and watched a kestrel hovering above and all this before we’d even started our work
Craig and I set up our position at the first monitoring site, mount our telescopes on the window and begin to scour the plot for sign of a Stone-curlew. Craig knows there has been a pair here and wanted to see if they had successfully laid eggs. When we finally did spot the birds (rather Craig spotted the birds, it’s a skill that takes some practice) we were watching for behaviour that suggests the pair have a nest. Many hours are spent each day in this position peering into a telescope from a vehicle so unsurprisingly aching backs and sore bums are a regular complaint from the dedicated project team.
When Craig is pretty sure there is a nest, the next difficult task is to locate it. The Stone-curlews lay their eggs on bare ground, their name coming from the fact that their eggs resemble stones. Even with the dandelions acting as a natural marker for this nest it was easy to keep losing the eggs if I took my eyes away from the spot!
Adult birds will leave the area as soon as they see a human approaching, and rely on the camouflage of their eggs to keep them hidden. From the vehicle Craig keeps his eye on the spot where he believes the nest to be, even when the birds abandon, and I walk onto the plot. Using mobile phones Craig ‘walks me in’ to the exact location while I desperately try to pick up the eggs well camouflaged on the stony ground. As soon as I have found them he joins me to quickly carry out the necessary monitoring.
A typical Stone-curlew clutch is two eggs, and each is weighed and measured. These figures when studied later will give a pretty accurate hatch date, useful for the team to know in order to return and monitor the progress of the chicks.
The day went on and we continued monitoring at a number of locations, mostly from the comfort of the vehicle but often from hedgerows, and fields. Stone-curlews are particularly prone to disturbance so keeping a distance was vital.
Lunch, and dinner were eaten from the car with one eye firmly attached to the eyepiece of a telescope and in that one day I saw more hares than I have in the past few years, heard my first cuckoo of the year and watched the sunset from a patch of nettles somewhere in the wilds of the Wiltshire landscape. My working day was 4 hours longer than usual, but I can’t wait until the next time I go out with the team.
Words and pictures Lindsey Death
Keeley