Alan was just getting ready to head off down to Cardiff in south Wales to do an optics demo in the Jacob’s store for Leica when the phone rang. The news was very strange indeed, a Purple Gallinule was being reported at Saltney, Flintshire, some 45 miles away. Now this is one of those species that goes by several names and worse there is also an American bird called a Purple Gallinule very different from the European species! So, what was the Saltney bird? A mega arrival from the USA? Or a probable escape from captivity which the European species would likely be? Either way Saltney was not far from Alan’s proposed route to Cardiff. The phone rang again, our friend Alan Conlin, he works near Saltney and was on his way to look for the bird. The directions were pretty vague – seen in a ditch by a building site – and that was it! Surely Alan C could not find it? Less than half an hour later he was back on the phone declaring “Got it!”.
Amazingly the bird had been found feeding a reed filled ditch south of the main road through Saltney opposite the Morrison’s store. The identification was quickly confirmed as the European species, sadly not a vagrant from across the pond, and was showing well.
By now Alan was well on his way along the A55 towards Saltney and readily agreed to the small diversion to join Alan C watching the bird.
The road was busy and as the ditch came into sight there was no-where to park! Then Alan noticed a large drive way just beyond the ditch, swinging in and parking, he jumped out and started towards the ditch.
 “Oi! You can’t park there!” rang out behind him.
“Only be a minute!” came the retort and on towards the bird!
Alan C was stood on a small footbridge over the water filled channel and looking down. The bird was stood in the reeds just below the bridge! Wow! What an amazing bird, the size of a very large chicken, with a massive bright red bill and the most enormous feet! The plumage was green/purple and made a wonderful sight against the green reeds. But where had it come from? A closer look showed the bird had a greyish head and a greenish neck, features consistent with the eastern form, found from Turkey eastwards. The race that occurs in the west has a blue head and neck. Some consider these two races should be separate species and may well be split one day. So could this bird be counted as a new British bird? Well, no, sadly, several of this race have occurred in the past and all were proved to be escapes and this was pretty certainly another. No matter about its captive origins it was a stunning bird and very bizarre! Those feet were just amazing, the length of the toes was just ludicrous, designed to support this large bird on floating vegetation. Well worth seeing!
If you would like to join us for great birding drop us an email info@thebiggesttwitch.comOur book of “The Biggest Twitch” is due for publication on 10 August 2010 to reserve your signed copy just drop us a line.