In the distance, the ominous dome of Sizewell nuclear power station loomed large but not quite as impressively as the sinister shape creeping through the reeds that soon became dubbed the giant blue chicken.
No need for alarm. Nothing had leaked from Sizewell’s core.
There were no mutant moorhens on the loose.
Minsmere, the RSPB’s flagship Suffolk coast reserve, was simply enjoying some dazzling rarity fall-out.
A summer that had already seen two potentially new additions to the official British bird list in the shape of a Dalmatian pelican and bearded vulture or lammergeier, was just about to go into meltdown.
The purple swamphen had landed for the first time in the UK.
When I got my first book of European birds a few decades ago, the purple swamphen, then known as the purple gallinule, was about as rare and elusive a bird you could imagine.
Virtually confined to the Coto Donana, Spain’s wetland wilderness, about as many people had seen one as could spell gallinule.
Loss of habitat during the early 20th century and hunting pressures had pushed the species to the brink. Extinction loomed.
Fortunately, landscape conservation and reintroduction programmes have seen the swamphen spread its stubby wings.
They now breed in Catalonia and Mallorca. Sardinian numbers are also increasing.
It is also establishing itself in southern France.
So why should a Mediterranean, sun-loving bird swap the sunshine for Suffolk?
Perhaps too much Spanish sunshine is the answer.
A lot is spoken about climate change and its impact on shifting bird ranges but the subject goes well beyond a species simply following the meanders of an isotherm.
A sound theory is that warmer, drier summers are distressing wetland habitats in southern Europe and encouraging swamphens to find new lush reedy areas where they can strip fronds to get the nutritious pith.
According to Rare Bird Alert, wandering swamphens have been recorded as far north as France’s Channel coastline of late.
One is currently residing in Brittany.
Not only does such evidence add credence to Minsmere’s bird having a truly wild provenance, it also throws up another interesting consideration.
The past three decades have seen little egrets heading up from the Mediterranean and spectacularly colonising the United Kingdom.
Is the Minsmere swamphen at the head of a new vanguard?
Source: Express.co.uk
