stone curlew
thick-knee
Burhinus oedicnemus

However, today we were seeking, not the long-gone bustard, but the nearest Breckland can offer to such a strange bird: the stone curlew.

It takes its name from the Indigenous Australian word for stone curlew, quilpeta.

The nearby Cavenham Heath National Nature Reserve is breeding ground of stone curlews and woodlarks.

The news was better from southern England, where stone curlews and marsh harriers raised large numbers of young.

Many other species native to dry grassland are under severe pressure, including the barn owl and little owl, the stone curlew, meadow pipit and corn bunting.

Other species, including woodlarks, stone curlews and little terns, have also done well, although some, including the corncrake and golden eagle, did less well than hoped.

On a wet autumnal day Joanna Pinnock goes in search of the rare stone curlew in Wiltshire.

The stone curlew occurs throughout Europe, north Africa and southwestern Asia.

The fox is the stone curlew's biggest enemy.

Maybe the days of having skylarks and stone curlews and partridges, at the abundance that they once were, are over.