East Lancashire's first Rose-coloured Starling drops one in Burnley
I GUESS IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME until Rose-coloured Starling finally turned up in East Lancs. I found myself on the streets of Burnley 0430 on Sunday morning amongst folks staggering home from drinking sessions, feral teenagers who appeared to have stopped out all night and a couple of 'ladies' sprawled on the pavement outside a long-closed pub... and I had hoped that by going early I might avoid people when searching for the starling in a residential area! The early start proved a waste of time apart from seeing a Little Ringed Plover briefly, which John Metcalf found on a piece of industrial wasteland nearby. It was alarming so we did not pursue it. I wonder how and why it found itself here with no water in sight? A day of butterflying around Morecambe Bay with Alan McBride quickly turned into a walk up Pendle instead and after a quick stop at the Riverbank Tearooms it was back to Burnley for another try. Fortunately this time the starling appeared, first on a chimney pot and then on a TV aerial but not for long. Eventually it gave itself up for a longer period on a nearby fenced off playing field, foraging with a flock of around 40 starlings. Thanks to Russel Carter and especially the finder, his brother-in-law, for making this possible!