Seeing that something huge had
clearly broken on the internet, but with no details as to what bird, I checked
my phone in anticipation, expecting a Mediterranean warbler or a rare tern.
Ah.
Ah.
Someone once asked me what the
least likely bird from Europe to turn up in Britain again would be, and after a
bit of thought I’d replied Citril Finch. Sedentary and living in the high
mountains of the Pyrenees and over to the Black Forest, there has only been one
previous record in the UK, of a male bird on Fair Isle back in June 2008 that
stayed for around 5 days. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have thought
there would be another one any time soon.
But here we were, over in
Cheshire, with a Citril Finch remarkably flying around the dunes and pines of
north Norfolk.
With the initial reports all being
of flight views we were a little hesitant – would the bird stick around and
would the vast majority connect? It was certainly a hell of a long way to go. A
certain Christopher Bridge had already informed us that he was well on his way
(always sneakily twitching the birds that matter!) and as countless others did
the same, 2 or so hours after the initial report I finally managed to persuade
Alex that we needed to set off and see this bird. Immediately.
After a relatively
straightforward 4 hour drive to Holkham, we were encouraged by the fact that
the bird had been showing well on the deck at intervals throughout the day – I
had a good feeling about this one.
Arriving at the extortionately priced car park on Lady Anne’s Drive just before 4pm, we started the long 1 ¾ mile treck through the pines and to the western side of the trees. A steady stream of birders passed in the opposite direction, evidently having connected and heading home happy whilst we hurriedly walked on, hoping that the bird would still be around!
After what felt like FOREVER
(but in reality was probably only 20 minutes or so), we turned a corner and a
passing birder gave us some encouragement to spur us on – the bird was showing
right now and it was only a few metres more along the path. Heading over the
bank, we were greeted by a huge mass of birders, scopes and cameras, all firmly
focused on the small hollow where this mega Alpine vagrant was clearly
favouring.
Thankfully a kind birder let
us look through his scope, and just like that, Citril Finch, in the UK. Mega.
Peering through the foliage, we were greeted by great views of this
delightfully bright finch, a beautiful spring male with sunshine yellow
underparts and a fantastic sooty great shawl around the neck.
Enjoying brief views as he fed
contently in the sand, all of a sudden: “It’s flown. In that tree, it’s gone”.
The bird must’ve decided it had had enough for the time being, and had sadly
disappeared, presumably off in to the extensive dunes to the west.
Exceptionally relieved we had
managed to connect, 5 minutes later and we would have missed it by moments (one
toilet stop could have ruined everything!), but I was a little sad that we
hadn’t managed to get a record shot – very reminiscent of our initial encounter
with the Red-throated Pipit the weekend prior!
After a search in the nearby
dunes, me and Alex decided the best option would be to wait back at the hollow,
as the bird had been following a pattern and had been returning throughout the
day. Sure enough, after around half an hour or so, the cry went up of “It’s
back! In the tree with the Chaffinch”.
The hollow the Citril Finch was favouring |
Proving exceptionally hard to
see and evidently very camouflaged amongst the sun dappled leaves of the
Sycamore, it took an absolute age to get on the bird (I was very glad I’d
already seen it at this point, many that hadn’t must have been going out of their
minds!) and the majority of us couldn’t see it until after it had flown to the
floor and begun to feed again.
Whilst the numbers had died down by the late afternoon, there was still a considerable crowd present |
Enjoying great scope views for
around 20 minutes or so, we watched the bird at length and I managed to take
some record shots of this amazing little alpine finch as we watched it happily
mooch amongst the weeds.
There is always some
speculation about rare finches and whether they may be escapees – it was only
after a lot of research in to feather isotopes that the Fair Isle bird was
accepted, having proved to originate from the Black Forest area in Germany.
However, the absence of any rings and the fact that our bird was in the most
natural habitat as possible that mirrored the alpine forests of its usual range
(not a feeder in someone’s garden or anything dodgy!) really strengthens this
individuals credibility of being a wild bird.
Indeed, whilst Citril Finches
are largely sedentary birds and are often described as only short distance
migrants, studies have shown that birds do move between breeding and wintering
ranges, with the longest distance travelled by an individual bird measured at a
remarkable 615km.
As Norfolk is only 732km from
the Black Forest (the closest Citril Finch population to Britain) it is more
than likely that this individual, like the Fair Isle bird, also originated from
there, having got caught up in a weather system, Indeed, a female was similarly
trapped in Finland during the spring of 1995 having been travelling amongst a
flock of Siskin.
The distance from the Black Forest in Germany to Norfolk |
Having seen a Citril Finch
briefly feeding on the ground on our trip to Northern Spain last April, I never
would have imagined that we would be seeing one here in the UK just over a year
later! A great bird for those who weren’t able to get up to Fair Isle 7 years
ago and proving that you never know what can turn up!
Citril Finch from Northern Spain |
Present until dusk and seen
very briefly around 6am on Monday with no further sign since, the bird has sadly
probably now moved on. With Britain’s only record of Red-breasted Nuthatch also
coming from Holkham Pines, having overwintered there in 1989 through to the May
of 1990, it’s anyone guess what the next mega to hit land there will be –
White-crowned Black Wheatear anyone?!
No comments:
Post a Comment