Return of the heath chicken

摘要

A stone curlew army has brought one of England's strangest birds back from the brink. Wader expert Graham Appleton investigates.Just imagine the thrill of holding a stone curlew chick in your hand, having caught it on a Norfolk field. For the next fewminutes, perhaps an hour, you'll look after the tiny creature while the field is cultivated and then you'll release it back into the care of its parents. But hands-on conservation of a weird and wonderful bird like this, once known as the 'wailing heath chicken' or 'goggle-eyed plover', does not happen by accident.