Finders in the Field: Alpine Accentor, Slaughden, Suffolk
Birdwatching had taken somewhat of a back seat in 2022 (long distance cycling taking up most of my time), but I’d got back on the horse a bit in August and started again watching my patch of the Alde estuary. Wader migration had been excellent in early autumn, but passerines had been sparse, although I was fairly content in finding a Pallas’s Warbler last week in Aldeburgh. I’d actually only been birding more over the last fortnight due to being forced off the bike from injury.
My old mate, Chris Boot, had phoned yesterday and wondered if I fancied a ‘bird out’, which I did, just to have good old yarn if nothing else. There was a fairly strong south/south-easterly wind with some showers early on that moved off to reveal brilliant blue skies and sunshine. It had been a fruitless morning with nothing of note and at lunch we were considering heading home. However, as the day was so nice, and I wanted to buy some kippers on the beach, we decided to have a quick look at Slaughden to finish our day off. I’d had a Black Redstart there yesterday, always think it looks good for a Desert Wheatear and I can get 5 kipper fillets for a fiver on the way!
We started walking south of the Martello tower at 12:45 and were treated to a Merlin hunting on the adjacent saltmarsh, by far the best bird of the day. As we continued south along the shingle ridge I noticed a small bird stick its head up from amongst some grass tufts. Looking straight into the sun all I could see was a silhouetted dark grey head and assumed it would be another Rock Pipit – things panned out differently!
We walked a little further and the bird then hopped out into the open. Binning it, still silhouetted, the bird looked amazingly like an Alpine Accentor – but what seemed like ages, but in reality was seconds – I just calmly said “that has got rufous flanks hasn’t it”, Chris replied “well, yes”. Chris hasn’t been birding that long and has never seen an Alpine Accentor (I had seen one in Suffolk, albeit many years ago), so his hesitation was understandable. Like shaking up a bottle of pop and quickly opening the cork, I exploded with “it’s a *@~#ing Alpine Accentor!”.
I love finding my own birds, in fact I don’t twitch birds elsewhere in Suffolk nowadays, finding my own Firecrest on my patch is more my thing. Perhaps if more birders did the same maybe more birds would get found?
So, at this point all calmness went out the window to be honest. This wasn’t like finding the Two-barred Greenish at Orford in 2019 where I had to methodically think through the features & call of what it wasn’t and what I then thought it was – this was a stonking Alpine Accentor hopping around in front of me.
I fumbled for my camera and tried to get some shots away. The bright sunshine was a nightmare and the wind made it difficult to hold the camera still, meaning getting a decent shot was difficult. I said to Chris to keep watching the bird while I dropped down off the shingle ridge out of view and ran around to the other side of the bird so the sun and wind were behind me. Clambering back up the shingle ridge I was then treated to crippling views of the bird in perfect light – ripper! Chris quickly joined me and we watched the bird at close range feeding amongst the grass clumps on top on the shingle ridge, every now and again it would droppidown onto the sea defence boulders.
I guess we had first clamped eyes on the bird around 12:50. I phoned a couple of people directly to get down here quickly and my brother in Newark, then the two of us enjoyed the bird, and the moment, for half an hour to ourselves. At 13:20 I thought I better let the masses know and with a message on the local Whatsapp group, BINS (a great service for Suffolk birders), with a BOC shot and ‘Alpine Accentor Slaughden now!’ Quickly I could see the distant figures of middle-aged men with a sweat on, clad in khaki fleece and Goretex trudging down the shingle ridge, and in no time at all a small group had gathered and were watching the bird.
As mentioned, I don't twitch birds these days and don’t like the crowds, so we left before things got too busy and went and enjoyed a celebratory bit of cake at Aldeburgh cafe before heading home. I’m sure no one would begrudge the half an hour we had the bird to ourselves (well some might – oh well) and was (another) reward for the hours I’ve put in around the Alde Estuary over the years. A bonus for the day was when I got home and unpacked the kippers (what fate buying these were) I had actually been given six by mistake – result!
Finally, I just wanted to add that the fee RBA have paid me to write this account will be donated to Prostate Cancer UK. A disease that I unfortunately lost my father to who got me into birding and would have loved to have seen this so close to his home in Leiston. If you have been to see the Accentor or enjoyed just reading this account and would like to make a donation you can do so here, thanks
Mark Cornish
28 Oct 2022
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