Rose-coloured Starling

Having missed out on an adult Rose-coloured Starling that spent five days ( unbeknown to any local birders) in Colyford just a couple of miles away from my house a few weeks ago, I was ever likely to reply in the affirmative when Bun asked if I wanted to go to see the one which is in a garden in North Devon at the moment. We'd both seen a Rose-coloured Starling before but only a distant juvenile, which compared to the pinky splendour of an adult male just doesn't seem to count! We decided to leave very early and even after our slight detour, due to me missing the correct motorway junction ( it was too early for me!) we arrived at about 6.30. We were just in time to see the owner of the garden replenish the fat balls, which were soon swarming with all manner of garden birds. We had to wait around  one and a quarter hours until the bird eventually showed up, it arrived high, from over some trees with fields behind, so probably from a neighbouring village. It initially hid in a dense hazel tree but then began to make sorties to the fat ball feeder where it feed voraciously, as only a Starling can! It was very active and difficult to get a photo of through the scope, every time I put the scope on it it had moved. The only place it stayed put was actually on the feeders but they were swinging in the breeze a bit. Talking of which, as well as being breezy it was very cool, more like a March morning than a June one! We enjoyed watching the bird in the company of one other Devon birder for about an hour. Then back to the car to warm up with a cup of coffee and back in Seaton by 10.30. That's my kind of twitch! :-)

And better late than never some video footage I took through the scope showing just what a glutton it is! The wind noise is pretty bad and it's horribly overexposed but apart from that it's yet another cinematographic masterpiece!