Rosy Pasteur at Lowestoft

On Tuesday 17th June, early morning 7am to 7.50am the bird spent much of its time in Clive's back garden I saw it only twice once when it pecked briefly in the large bush and a second time when it perched on an arterial just north of Clive's house. Following a long lunch break from 1.50 to 3.50pm I drove straight to Pinewood Avenue. By the junction of Pinewood Avenue and Breydon way, the bird couldn't be seen. However walking across and taking the same passageway as the previous night, I saw Rob Wils, the Norfolk bird photographer and he said he had the bird perching right out in the open in the second bush. Walking carefully around, the fine adult Rose coloured Starling, the Rosy Pasteur as it is colloquially called, was still there albeit partially obscured. With last night's experience in mind, I tracked back to the alleyway over looking the garden and saw the bird in a better position albeit the lower body was obscured. A really smart bird with jet black head and upper breast with pink bill (with black at the base) Pink mantle and scapulars, the upper scapulars showed a dark brown band extending back, with black wings and pink rump black tail and pink underparts and black scalloped under tail coverts with pink legs. The pink belly had a few fine streaks of brown too. The Rose- coloured Starling perched up in the bush looking around facing first right then left before they all flew. It was next seen back in Clive's garden. Seen perched up in the far back east bushes before it flew across the garden towards us and we then saw it perched up showing well in the large bush in the middle of Clive's garden where I was able to get some great shots through the hedge. It flexed its head showing its pinky head crest and was seen well here before it flew down and I had to reluctantly leave to go back to work.