Editorial: Autumn 2004

My son and I happened to visit RSPB Minsmere on the same day as the slender-billed curlew. The car park and the visitor centre were packed out with twitchers. Although we had not planned it, we decided to try and see the bird; - after all it had hit the national news. People were travelling from across Europe to get a glimpse of this elusive bird, only officially seen 174 times in the last hundred years. It was not difficult to locate, all we had to do was follow the olive green crowd. There it was, alone in a field of stubble off the reserve, about 150 metres away from the footpath. There must have been over a hundred folk, with almost as many tripod-mounted telescopes, watching and whispering; the atmosphere of excitement punctuated by frequent musical chiming of mobile phones. Although our binoculars were rather ineffective, an intense but charming young Irishman came to our assistance and we saw the bird clearly through his telescope. He summarised the rarity status of this curlew, and explained the debate in the birding world about whether or not it is really a separate species. It looked just like those I often see at Hare’s Creek here on the Orwell. What impressed us more was the courteous, happy and friendly behaviour of the enthusiasts. Complete strangers smiled and said hello.

In odd contrast with this episode we saw and photographed a rare bird in our garden this week, and no one wants to know! Whatever it was, we knew it was unusual, possibly a species of Wheatear. It spent about an hour with us. I managed to get some respectable pictures and duly despatched them down the wires, with a description, to local recorders and national ‘birdlines’ as well as an expert birding friend. However, there has been no reply, not even an ‘hello’ this time. Maybe they’re all on the road to far-flung places…

Over a quarter of a million acres of land were opened for public access on 19^th September, the first portion under the ‘right to roam’ law. Suffolk was included in this stage. I cannot see that it will make much difference here. Francis Simpson discretely ignored ‘Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted’ notices for ninety or so years, and he didn’t get into serious trouble. Of greater benefit, in my patch of Suffolk at least, would be if the footpaths were properly maintained, or in a few cases, not ploughed up every year.

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