"Bring on the Trumpets......"

Post date: May 31, 2010 9:22:46 PM

We were out most of the day yesterday, I didn't bother taking my pager (which was probably best, in retrospect!) So when we got home I casually started to scroll through the messages. I only reached the second one before an outburst of B*****x, f*** *t and t***, as I read that a Trumpeter Finch had spent most of the day, after being found on the Point, at Cley, and was still there. Now, I can resist many a rare bird if its not on my patch, but this Pink Bugler has been a bit of a UK rarity nemesis for me. My first opportunity, way back when, was a bird at Pagham that ended up lunch for a Sparrowhawk the day before we were to go and see it. Then, in my home county of Essex, one was found on the "take one more step and we will shoot you dead" Foulness Island near Southend (an MoD facility) Later still a bird was present at Languard Suffolk for sometime...while I was in Florida. 2 years ago, Blakeney turned up Norfolk's first, again during a period that could not have been more poorly timed if it tried! It was also the species I had ear marked as a 'find' at Sheringham Obs one day, and even more lately along the clifftop. That left this latest arrival, on a bank holiday Monday, the second busiest of the year! I waited and waited and could wait no more, picked up Dad around 1830 and drove to Cley. It was perfect- pulled up, plenty of parking. Walked down the infamous East bank-not too many people about, and walked straight up to where the male TRUMPETER FINCH was showing, being flighty at first, after which it settled down on the seaward side of the shingle ridge and sat there, getting closer and closer, glowing like Dale Wintons Purse! ... "Trumpets!"