I live in a housing estate with a small industrial estate next door and everywhere else is farmland and a railway line. No large built up areas nearby. About 20 minutes drive to the coast. Northeast region of the UK. Very green with trees etc. River about two miles away.
We regularly see oystercatchers on the grass next to the estate and I hear them too. They're black and white with red beak and legs and very distinctive birds.
There is another bird though. It looks like a wader. About the same size as an oystercatcher, brown and white in a camoflauge type pattern. It flies very straight and quite fast. It gives a very loud "peep" sound as it goes. It's quite noisy at night and I think it may have chicks which are harassed by the gulls or crows.
I saw it on a house roof one day having an argument with a crow.
It's not a thrush or anything like that, it flies like a wader and has the silhouette of a wader as well as their flight pattern. I'm pretty sure it's not a curlew, although we have had them fly over and I recognise their plaintive call. All this one says is "peep".
Does anyone know what it might be?