Sunday 15 September 2013

Juvenile Rose- coloured Starling at Caister

Arriving at the Beach road, Caister today, I saw Peter C & Diane and a big flock of 200 Starlings flew over us and amongst them was we spotted the excellent very pale sandy coloured Rose- coloured Starling flying around. It then flew over to the buildings just east of the Beach road car park along Beach Road & Old Mill road and it was seen perched and scoped from the car park on the roof and chimney pots with Ricky F and John H briefly joining us joining us before it flew again. Walking along back along Beach rd, I saw the bird perched first on the roof then amongst the chimney pots and then it flew to a more distant roof where good scope views were obtained. It flew again. Seeing the Dereham lads, as sharp as ever they had picked it up near a roof top with solar panels in Clay Road (first left west of car park) and we had good views of it here where it rested for some 10 minutes along with around 20 or so other Starlings above the panels. A very sandy looking bird as is always the case with immatures with yellow base to the bill and very clean fresh dark black or brown flight feather with white/ cream edgings giving it a very clean smart looking appearance. It then flew again and was seen at the back of a chimney pot, down a side a passage of the Street, where I managed a few shots before it and the Starling flew onto a green area. They fed here for a while before they flew again. Reassembling back at the car park, I amazed Paul W by picking up the bird in flight, which was easy to do with the Zeiss bins I now have, obviously it was very pale but appeared slightly bigger than the other Starlings with slightly blunter edged wing tips maybe with broader bases making it reasonably distinctive n flight if you were warranted a good view. Also good to see around 30 House Sparrows around the green area and a further 10 House Sparrows opposite the Library too. Late on today 4pm, news came out of a LGS at Aldringham walks but where on earth was that? After 30 minutes pouring over maps of Suffolk, I finally located was near Sizewell, but I had run out of time as I calculated it would take 2 hours to get it; 1 hour's drive and another hour's 2 mile walk and in the driving rain to boot! Should have gone as I would have seen it very late on at 6.35pm, when it was still showing. Lets hope it stays to next weekend as there will not be enough time either before or after work (start work at 8am finish at 5pm).

2 comments:

Paul Woolnough said...

After the sparrowhawk few over, it proved impossible to keep up with the scattering flock in my bins AND to pick out the pale bird.

I joined the Dereham lads, plus Justin and family in the nearby cafe. Enjoyed a cappuccino and some banter.

Saw bird well on rooftops later on, when suitably refreshed!

Peter Ransome said...

Thanks Paul, the light transmission on the Zeiss Victory bins is amazing and make picking out birds easier in poor light. As was the case with flying RCS at Caister once the flock was spooked by the Sparrowhawk!