Eastern Crowned Warbler lands in Trow Quarry

Oct 24 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

A FAR Eastern bird which landed on the North East coast started a stampede of spotters yesterday. The arrival of the eastern crowned warbler is a first for the UK.

It was first logged on Thursday night at Trow Quarry off The Leas at South Shields by local birders Doug Holden and Derek Bilton.

The bird breeds in Japan, Korea and China and winters in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Word spread rapidly and bird watchers from London and the South East were in South Shields by early yesterday.

By last night an estimated 800 bird enthusiasts had visited the spot and that figure is expected to be exceeded today. The bird is about the same size as a sparrow and has olive green upper and white underparts, with a cream crown and eye stripes.

One of the bird watchers who made the trip to South Shields was Alan Tilmouth, from Morpeth, who writes a bird blog for The Journal.

He said that logging of the bird was only the fifth for Europe, dating from 1847. The last three have been in Norway, Finland and Holland.

“It is a fantastic bird and I was over the moon to see it,” said Alan, who is a member of Northumberland and Durham bird clubs. “It is the sort of bird you will perhaps see once in a lifetime and such a very rare event produced a massive influx of people to the area.”

The former Trow Quarry is opposite the Bamburgh pub on The Leas. Alan said: “Nobody is sure why these long distance migrants turn up like this, but it could be that a compass malfunction causes it to go in the wrong direction. Weather conditions my then take it further and further afield, but it will stop and feed along the way.” Last week The Journal reported how another two rare arrivals drew hundreds of birders to Northumberland.

A glossy ibis and a Raddes warbler took up residence at Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Druridge Pools nature reserve.

Yesterday, Mr Holden said he felt like he had won the World Cup.

Mr Holden, a father-of-two from South Shields, said: “The bird world is going mad. For someone like me, this is like winning the World Cup.”