Friday early afternoon a report appeared on RBA of a rare Alpine Accentor at a place called Slaughden on the Suffolk coast. I worked out how long it would take me to get there and found that it was 215 miles or close to 4 hours from home meaning I would not get there before dark. I hence resolved to go the next morning if it was reported, I really didn’t fancy a 430 mile and £130 fuel tank dip! The Accentor was last seen going to roost on a pipe on the Martello tower by the beach which gave some encouragement that it might stay overnight although Alpine Accentors are notorious for being one day wonders.
The next morning I was caught out a little when I got a message from Nick around 7am that it was still there. It was still pitch black at home and I had forgotten that it gets light earlier on the east coast. So some 30 minutes later I was in the car and driving off on what was a fairly uneventful but boring drive. With a stop for coffee and to buy some lunch I arrived just after midday. Not knowing the site I parked much further away than I needed to and so had a 20 minute walk to a gate with quite a few birders looking over it including my friends Nick and Anne. After a slightly frustrating 15 minutes or so, I managed to get a partial view of the bird hidden in the grass.
The Alpine Accentor, as the name suggests, is a bird of bare mountains above 2000 m with sparse vegetation. It is found throughout the mountains of southern Europe through to Asia. It is mainly resident although some birds migrate down the mountain to lower latitudes for the winter. Somewhat surprisingly for a resident bird, there are a number of records in Northern Europe including 39 in the UK to the end of 2020. The word Accentor means a person who sings with another, being presumably what happens in spring when the birds are vying for a mate. They have an usually mating habit whereby a territory is occupied by 3 or 4 males and 3 or 4 females. The females will typically mate with all the males and DNA analysis has indeed shown that within a females brood mixed parentage is common. Somehow or another the males seem to be able to work out which chicks are their’s and will only take food to these nests.
A little frustratingly, the bird was keeping in the sparse beachside vegetation where it was feeding on seeds only giving the occasional partial view. Thankfully, it eventually came more out into the open allowing much clearer views. In appearance it was similar in size and plumage to its close relative, the Dunnock. In fact it looked like a Dunnock that had put its Sunday best on with a very attractive red waistcoat!
After a while the Accentor flew up the beach and the group of birders I was with followed it. I was debating whether to follow them or call it a day when it flew back and landed on the beach below me. Over the next hour or so it wandered around the rocks at times affording very close views as it perched on the rocks by the path. I guess, given its normal mountainous habitat, it was very at home in these rocks.
There were again some disappointing reports of bad behaviour from birders but in all truth I didn’t see any and there really didn’t need to be any. If you kept still the bird would eventually come very close to you entirely of its own accord. I’ve read that it is very confiding in its natural habitat and will do the same there. The only time I saw the bird flushed was when an out of control toddler ran up to it.
I left satisfied and elated by my encounter with our mountain visitor, all told a very uplifting day!
Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!
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