DRURIDGE BAY
Back at the end of the last century, as the Slender-billed Curlew started to slide towards oblivion, a possible sighting of one in the unlikely location of Druridge Bay, Northumberland, sparked a 15-year controversy that still divides birders.
On Monday, 4 May, an unknown birdwatcher found what he first identified as a Whimbrel, and reported it to a number of local birdwatchers.
The news services reported it as “a controversial curlew thought by some observers to be a Slender-billed”, and until 7 May large numbers of birdwatchers travelled to see it.
It was photographed, and three video recordings of it were made, and debate about its identity started immediately on online forums. Some birders claimed that the shape of its bill, head and back were not right for Slender-billed Curlew, and that it did not show an eye-ring, all characteristics noted from the wellwatched Merja Zerga birds.
Those who supported its identification as a Slender-billed Curlew claimed that both head and back shape did at times appear correct, that Slender-billed’s bills were likely to vary in the same way as Curlews’, and that the bird did have a faint eye-ring, which might be typical of first-summer SBCs.
The British Ornithologists’ Union and the British Birds Rarities Committee eventually accepted it as the first British record of Slender-billed Curlew in 2002, but controversy continued, especially after a bird seen at Minsmere in 2004 was initially thought to be an SBC, but was eventually agreed to be a first-winter Curlew, and in 2014 Slender-billed Curlew was removed from the British List pending a review of the record by the BBRC and BOU.