I wasn't able to go on Sunday & when there was negative news on Wednesday it wasn't really much of a surprise. However, after no news on Thursday a report emerged on Friday morning that the bird had been seen on Thursday. This report was then classed as erroneous, but only a few minutes later the bird had been reported again! I phoned Kenny Dummigan in the evening to see if he'd already seen the bird & if not was he interested? He hadn't & he was!
Although we'd originally decided to wait on news, Kenny phoned me early Saturday morning & we agreed to go before any information was released. News emerged just before our arrival in Chesterfield of the bird being present & we arrived on site shortly after 11am. We could see the Crag Martin from the car zipping around the "Crooked Spire" as we drove past the ranks of assembled birders, frantically looking for somewhere to park. Kenny stopped the car briefly so we could get decent views, before parking up.
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| The Crooked Spire |
Initially we were on the good side of the church for the light, but the bird kept more to the other side, so we changed our position & were able to watch continuously for quite a while as the bird performed its acrobatics virtually overhead. It was tough to keep on the bird as it sped about before disappearing for about half an hour. Another show before disappearing again shortly before midday. At this point we set off back home.
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| A small part of the crowd at the Crag Martin twitch |
The Crag Martin did land on the church, as illustrated in this photo by Steven Nuttall. Most of the time it was flying about at great speed with sudden changes of direction & very difficult to follow let alone photograph, but many photos were obtained including this one by Andy Butler & this one by Tony Davison.
Video by Gonebirding610.
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