Rose-coloured starlings breed in eastern Europe and have irrupted across western Europe in response to food shortages since the middle of May. There have been reports of flocks reaching Italy & southern France.It has been a week awash with pink-rosy starlings, and they seemed to be everywhere in Britain, with well in excess of 50 birds reported.
A male bird was found yesterday afternoon at Frodsham Marshes on No. 1 tank with a flock of starlings. I couldn't make it that afternoon due to work commitments, but thankfully the bird hung around until the next day!
On arrival, I got distant scope views of the bird flying around on the embankment of the mersey canal, and then the flock of starlings flew right and headed down the river weaver. The views were distant and not that good, so I drove down to the old log carpark and walked up the river.
As I was walking along the river, I found the starlings roosting by the river, and a rose-coloured starling was just sitting in with them. What a stunning bird and a much-awaited county tick for me after seeing so many in Britain.
Previous Cheshire and Wirral records:
Middlewich-24th-26th June 1976Winsford-Adult seen and photographed, 14th June 2007
Wirral-Adult-news couldn't be released due to access issues (15th May 2014).