Bygone birding: Britain's first recorded northern waterthrush feasted on flies it found on rotting seaweed

 

Tiny bird with a plump body and a bobbing tail

FOR those with long (very long) memories, the presence this month of a northern waterthrush in Essex might spark memories of the first time the bird was recorded in Great Britain and Ireland.

That was on the morning of September 30, 1958, at Govean, on the eastern side of St. Agnes, Isles of Scilly  when G.J. Harris and R.E. Scoff were the finders.

After being trapped in a mist-net, then ringed and released, the birds stayed until October 12 allowing it be watched by others - but in nowhere the same numbers as the current bird in Heybridge.

It was not a 'first' for Europe - another specimen having been trapped at Ushant, France, on September 17, 1955.

Plumpness seem to be a characteristic of the species as is the sandpiper-like bobbing of the tail. 

The Scillies bird spent most of its waking hours feeding, somewhat in the manner of a pied wagtail, on larvae and flies that it detected on rotting seaweed, first on the shoreline but later on bulb fields where the weed had been laid as a fertiliser. 

A curiosity was that, as it was ringed, a small snail was found to be attached to its feathers.

Additional details were supplied in a comprehensive report published in the November 1960 edition of British Birds journal.

The authors noted that westerly winds had been especially strong in the 30 hours before the bird's arrival, but they do not dismiss the inevitable speculation that, dare it be said, its crossing might have been ship-assisted.

"In this respect, it is perhaps not without interest to mention that liners from both New York and Montreal passed St. Agnes the night before the bird was found. 

They conclude: "The trajectory of sea air clearly shows that the existing weather conditions gave the bird considerable assistance if it did fly the Atlantic unaided. 

"Beyond this, however, it is impossible to reach any firm conclusions regarding the bird's crossing." 

What of the Heybridge bird? It is a long way east of the Atlantic but not a million miles from the port at Felixstowe. 

* British Birds remains the most authoritative ornithological publication. Online subscribers have access to its wealth of news and features - including articles about rare and vagrant birds - over many years.

** Picture credit: Andy Reago/ Chrissy McClarren (via Wikimedia  Commons) - bird photographed in St Louis, Missouri on April  21, 2012.