After an uneventful seawatch on Monday, where the conversation was largely about a Stone Curlew being found on the beach at Shoreham that morning – a fantastic find, we returned home and I went into Osprey-watch mode. This consists of staring out of the window wondering why the Ospreys fly over Angmering rather than over me. I was roused from my reverie be a couple of funny wader calls, and looked out to see a Stone Curlew doing a noisy circuit of the field behind our house. Unbelievable! Unfortunately, it flew over the hedge to the next field before I could get Karen on it, but it appeared to land, so we dashed out to try and relocate it. After a while Karen saw it fly and land close to where I was, and I was able to get a few photos before it vanished into the crop, never to be seen again despite hours of looking. This is only the fourth Stone Curlew I’ve seen in the UK, and easily the best views. Was it the Lancing bird? Perhaps, but there would be more than one bird arriving that morning, so who knows? Here’s my best picture, along with a few more pictures from the spring.
Birds, wildlife and travel