With less than 20 records in the county since 1950, the Stone Curlew is on the wish list for many local birders. They have not bred in the county for many years when they were once fairly numerous in some areas.
On May 15th, local birder Rob Cadd was on site at Gallows Bridge BBOWT reserve at 5:15am and found the bird on the east side of the approach field. It foraged amongst the scrapes until about 7am when it was mobbed by a Lapwing and flew to the main meadow. It then walked halfway down meadow, then back towards the hides, eventually roosting in rough patch in the meadow. The bird became a bit more elusive after that, although it did still show occasionally.
Rob notified the County Recorder and several birders managed to see the bird during the day. Typically for a spring migrant, it was not present the following morning.