Crag Martin! What a bird, what
an agonising week in work and what a roller coaster ride of emotion - all
thanks to one tiny Mediterranean Hirundine taking to the skies in a Derbyshire
town!
After missing the well
twitched Crag Martin at Flamborough in April last year due to flying out to
Spain the same weekend it arrived, me and Alex were sure it would be a
considerable wait until we got another opportunity to see this mega bird in
Britain again – if ever. Even though we had seen plenty during our trip to
Spain, it wasn’t quite the same as seeing one in the UK, and the Flamborough
Crag Martin definitely fell in the category of one that got away….
Fast forward a year and a half
to last Sunday morning when the alert on my phone came through detailing the
incredible report of a Crag Martin flying around the crooked spire in
Chesterfield! This was an opportunity we simply couldn’t miss! Leaving on first
news and despite the bird disappearing on several occasions, it reassuringly
kept returning to the spire throughout the afternoon, obviously favouring the
tall structure as a point of interest in the Chesterfield landscape. I had a good feeling – it felt like we would
connect.
However, at 13:50 news came
out that the bird had flown off and not yet returned, and despite a vigil at
the spire with another hundred or so birders in the hope that it would come in
to roost, there was sadly no sign through to dusk.
Several birders were convinced
it would be back in the morning, with Crag Martins on the continent often
returning to the same structure or spot once they have taken a liking to it,
and were staking out the crooked spire from dawn. The mega alert noise on my
phone while walking through the door at work on Monday morning therefore
stopped me in my tracks and my heart sank – it had to be the Crag Martin back.
Phew – false alarm, it was only the Hudsonian Whimbrel in Cornwall. A second
alert 10 minutes later however wasn’t so welcome – the Crag Martin was indeed
back and flying around the spire! Gutted was an understatement.
An agonising work in week then
ensued, before the dreaded news on Wednesday came though that there had been no
sign at the church all day – this mega visitor had apparently departed without
us managing to connect.
However, searching for ‘Crag Martin’ on twitter late on Thursday night, I came across a tweet from the same day by a birder saying he had enjoyed views of it flying around the spire that very morning! What on earth?! Sending the photo to Alex he sent the news in to Birdguides in case the bird had been remarkably refound – we still weren’t sure if this was a mistake or even a wind up after all the local publicity the bird had been receiving. Regardless, the report being publicised the next day worked, and sure enough (despite the sighting at one point being renounced as a hoax/plane) at half 9 that morning the few birders present confirmed the unbelievable – the Crag Martin was back for more! Every weekday worker/twitcher unable to get time off breathed a collective sigh of relief across the country. The Crag Martin twitch was back on!
However, searching for ‘Crag Martin’ on twitter late on Thursday night, I came across a tweet from the same day by a birder saying he had enjoyed views of it flying around the spire that very morning! What on earth?! Sending the photo to Alex he sent the news in to Birdguides in case the bird had been remarkably refound – we still weren’t sure if this was a mistake or even a wind up after all the local publicity the bird had been receiving. Regardless, the report being publicised the next day worked, and sure enough (despite the sighting at one point being renounced as a hoax/plane) at half 9 that morning the few birders present confirmed the unbelievable – the Crag Martin was back for more! Every weekday worker/twitcher unable to get time off breathed a collective sigh of relief across the country. The Crag Martin twitch was back on!
