Williamson's Weekly Nature Notes

The painting by Philip Rickman from A History of Sussex Birds shows what used to be a common sight on the bare chalk fields of the Downs.

It used to be so common it was called the shepherds' friend because the beautiful song given at dusk and through calm moonlit nights was all those lonely old fellows had to cheer them through the late lambing and into summer when they lived out in their tiny vans among the hills.

Just to show how common they were, the bird was given nine different names by the Sussex shepherds. Curlew, great plover, hill-curlew, little bustard, night-curlew, night-hawk, norfolk plover, thick-knee, and thick-kneed bustard were collected by John Walpole-Bond.

It was known to the Romans, too, who called it Gabbes racce, the dog which hunts by night and digs up the corpses of the dead.

That name was also applied to any night-calling bird such as nightjar and barn owl. So it really meant evil night dwelling spirit.

The name became Gabble-ratch then Gabriel's hounds, a name still used in Norfolk for wild geese.

The last stone curlew I saw in Sussex was 20 years ago.

Birds are seen each year passing through the county on their way to the Norfolk/Suffolk brecks, where about 200 pairs now breed, a figure slightly increasing.

In 1938 about 60 pairs at least were thought to breed. That was before modern agricultural methods destroyed the species here. The RSPB and others have funded friendlier farming in the brecks or rear the birds on nature reserves.

When I was a lad serving in the RAF in Iraq and Jordan, stone curlews were common enough in the deserts and used to nest on the edge of the desert (dirt) runways.

Meteors, Vampires, Hastings, Yorks and Valettas missed them by inches. The evening song was haunting and inspiring to National Service lads 3,000 miles from home, bringing memories for a few of us who knew about these things of dear old Blighty.

I expect there are no more stone curlews in Iraq any more than there are in Sussex. Sad really.

This feature was in the West Sussex Gazette April 9. To read it first, b uy the West Sussex Gazette every Wednesday.