Eurasian Stone-curlew Burhinus oedicnemus
Formerly bred on the Wolds and the heaths of the north west and south west of the county but became progressively scarcer from the 1870s. Last bred successfully at Manton Warren near Scunthorpe in 1904. A brief appearance by one there in April 2005 set the heart racing! In 1989 a lone female, ringed as a chick in the Brecks in 1986, attempted without success to incubate two eggs at Fulbeck Airfield. She reappeared in spring 1990 but did not lay.
Smith & Cornwallis (1955) regarded it as a 'rare vagrant' recorded most frequently on the coast. One was at North Cotes in March 2nd, 1935 and two or three were seen at Gibraltar Point NNR April 7th and May 15th, 1950; in the autumn of 1950 one was there July 30th and another two September 22nd. In 1951, one was present July 24th, and in 1952 aone was on the Wolds near Caistor, heard calling but with no evidence of nesting. Another was shot at Goxhill, September 25th, 1953, mistaken for a Curlew. During the period 1957-1967 they were r ecorded as follows: Gibraltar Point, September 24th, 1957; Lincoln, flew over, April 2nd, 1958; further records in 1958 were May 11th, Cleethorpes, Gibraltar Point June 11th, Gedney Drove End August 16th, Beckingham September 10th (3); Humberstone June 15th 1960 (4); Biscathorpe July 27th, 1964; Gibraltar Point December 3rd 1967 (No further mention of the late date other than ' a late record' in LNU Transactions, vol. 17 (1968-1971). From 1968 to 1988 there was less than one bird per year with a blank run from 1979-1987. There were just six records in the 1990s but then three in 2000 with singles in 10 of the years afterwards up to 2020.
(Account as per new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021), included September 2022)