The Withnell Moor Stone Curlew.
29-30.06.04.
By Ian Cameron.
Like most birders, as June progressed, our optimism at finding interesting birds was diminishing fast. At this time of year Harry Sumner and I begin to take more interest in Butterflies and Flowers as the birds become more elusive.
Having spent a fairly fruitless hour at Pleasington with only fleeting glimpses of Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat. We then headed to the newly replenished Withnell Fold Flashes where the sum total was a pair of Oystercatcher and a Reed Bunting!
By then it was about 14.40hrs and needing to be home for around 16.15hrs we were at a loss to think where to go for the last hour or so of our birding day. In what must have been an inspired moment I suggested we go to the top of Well Lane, Brinscall and have a wander on the edge of the moor. It is not an area we often visit and why I suggested it I'll never know.
Arriving at around 14.50hrs we had a cup of coffee before setting off east towards the old ruined barn. So, not exactly full of optimism we declined the opportunity of lugging our heavy scopes along with us, and as I'm sure many birders will know, this automatically will increase your chances of seeing something just beyond comfortable 'bins' range!
A pair of noisy Curlew, a flock of Starling and a pair of
foraging Mistle
Thrushes were the only birds visible as we approached the ridge and the relic
farm machinery.
Then suddenly a quite large pale brown bird with black and
white wing edges appeared arcing in from the southwest and landed briefly in
front of the ruins called Solomons Temple. Harry immediately
enquired "what`s that?"
My first thought was Stone Curlew, having seen them regularly abroad in Mallorca, Portugal and the Greek Islands, but then logic seem to shoot into my head saying "What would a Stone Curlew be doing here?" - and I began to doubt my own eyes!
Unfortunately the bird soon took flight and disappeared
further
ahead of us before dropping in the next field. Harry again asked what I was
thinking and I told him he wasn't going to believe it but I was confident it was
a Stone Curlew!!
Having no experience of this species Harry said he'd take my word for it but would like a better look.
As we slowly approached the field the bird took flight again, arcing over our heads and back to the spot it first alighted. Using the ruins as cover we were able to get within c50m of the bird, getting good views of the black tipped yellow beak and yellow legs - but to Harry's dismay not the yellow eye ring as the bird had its eye half closed! The black edge to the wing was also clearly visible. It remained motionless for a couple of minutes before again taking flight, heading to the west end of the sheep pasture before we eventually lost sight of it.
By now it was around 16.00hrs. In a state of disbelief and euphoria we headed home, arriving back at c16.15hrs. I immediately submitted the bird to Birdguides news/alert service and sent an email to Bill Aspin about our good fortune. At around 20.00hrs I checked Birdguides, but there was no further news. Thankfully, when I checked again at around 23.00hrs, the bird had been re-found and the sighting had been confirmed by several observers. We could now feel good about ourselves in the knowledge that we had not given anyone a 'bum-steer'. If no one else had seen this bird, I'm convinced no one would have believed us - I couldn't believe it Myself !!
Ian Cameron (3rd July 2004).
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Additional details of the event.
Bill Aspin.
As far as I am aware, the first birder to search for the Stone Curlew on the evening of the 29th was John Metcalfe, who succeeded in relocating the bird at 20.30hrs, enabling birders from as far as Clitheroe and Colne to successfully twitch it in the last couple of hours of light. Dave Bickerton fortunately managed to obtain the images at the top of the page, in the fading light on 1/2 second shutter speed, thus ensuring that if the bird wasn't seen again there would at least be record images of the bird for historical value. During these views, a white colour ring was noted on the left tarsus.
I arrived at the site at 04.50hrs on 30th, in breezy and fairly wet conditions and located the bird just south of Solomons Temple at 05.00hrs. Unfortunately, the bird almost immediately flushed and flew out over the Moor before re-landing in a field on the moorland edge, where scope views were had until 05.15hrs when the bird suddenly took up and flew SW until lost to view over the moorland ridge. It had not returned by 05.45hrs when I left the site.
Despite good coverage from 06.30hrs - early afternoon, there was no further sign, until the bird suddenly reappeared at 14.15hrs, enabling Steven Grimshaw to obtain the record images below, showing more detail of the colour rings. After 20 minutes, the bird again flew SW. This was the final sighting.
Note: on the upper photo, a green ring can clearly be seen above the right knee, whilst on the image below, two colour rings; white (over blue?) can be seen on the lower left leg.
Feedback from Tim Cowen, the RSPB's Stone Curlew project officer for East Anglia, was disappointing, as he couldn't be confident as to the exact colour of the lower ring on the left leg. However, he added that If the ring was indeed blue, then the bird was ringed as a chick in the West Sussex area in 2002.
In all, perhaps only 20 birders connected with the bird. This is a pity as the last twitchable bird in the county was as long ago as August 1990, when one was found in a field at Jameson Rd, Fleetwood.
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Records of Stone Curlew in Lancashire.
This species has a vagrant county status.
1879: One was shot on Haslingden Moor in the spring of this year by W. Sawyer. The specimen was examined by R. J. Howard & H. P. Hornby and is now in the possession of J. R. Charnley (Ref: Oakes, Birds of Lancashire, 1953).
1912: One shot nr Southport by D. D. Pennington in May of this year (Ref: Birds of Southport, p.310).
1927: Two birds were identified at Claughton, on the River Lune, by E. Brookfield on 17th March (Ref: British Birds, Vol. 23)
1931: An immature female, picked up alive at Knowsley Park on 15th August had evidently been in a collision with wires and died two days later. The specimen is in Liverpool Museum (Ref: Oakes, Birds of Lancashire, 1953).
1975: One at Moss Edge Farm, Cockerham Moss on 22nd November. Observers: Mike Ainscough, PJT, BJR (Ref: 1975 Lancs Bird Report - per C. Batty).
1983: One was watched for ninety minutes on the morning of 5th June nr White Mans Dam, Knowlsley Park (Ref: 1983 Lancs Bird Report).
1990: One found by Peter Hornby in a field at Jameson Rd, Fleetwood on 5th August (per 1990 Lancs Bird Report).
1990: One seen in flight at close range at Oglet on the River Mersey on 27th August, observers: PAH, AEH (per 1990 Lancs Bird Report).
2004: A colour-ringed bird found by Ian Cameron & Harry Sumner at Withnell Moor, SD635205, from 29-30th June 2004.
I would be very interested to receive details of any other county records not included above, for addition to this article. - Please email Bill Aspin.
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Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Tony Disley for researching past records, Dave Bickerton & Steven Grimshaw for kindly providing the images and of course the finders of this latest, outstanding local record.
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