Stone Curlews in Hampshire

 Thursday 24th June 2021

 Tidgrove Warren, near Overton, Hampshire

To get this years Stone Curlew "fix" I visited north Hampshire, on a Naturetrek half day tour led by Keith Betton.  The venue was Tidgrove Warren near Overton, a private estate with a royal pedigree going back to the time of Henry II.  It was only when I got there that I found out it was the same venue that Chris Packham used on the  most recent Springwatch series and also the same one that made the front page of the March edition of  Birdwatch magazine.

This was my first trip with Naturetrek and I have to say it was really good,  Keith Betton was superb, giving us all the background to the rewilding efforts on the estate and a history of Stone Curlews in particular.  Incredibly there are around 30 breeding pairs in Hampshire.

• We actually saw 3 Stone Curlews on 2 nests.  The first nest had just one Stone Curlew on eggs for the duration of our visit but the second nest gave us views of another 2 birds  We watched from about 250 metres away to respect the curlews privacy.   We needed the highest magnification on our scopes to view them but, thankfully there was no heat haze so the images were crisp and clear.  
• Both nests were just 30 metres apart - very, very unusual apparently.  We even witnessed the "changeover" where the male and female exchanged places with one on the nest while the other ventured off for a couple of hours.
• The image below will not win any prizes but it is rather special to me.  It was taken on my iPhone attached to my scope and represents a first for me - a digiscoped image obtained without an attachment to the lens, obtained simply by holding my phone close to the eyepiece on my scope.  The only down side to this is that it was Keith and not me who took the picture - my efforts being so feeble!

 

Really enjoyable visit to see one of my favourite species.

I will definitely embrace the Naturetrek 1-day tours in the south from now on to complement my Norfolk tours!