The big stories
A mega North American passerine graced a London garden, ‘Vigo’s’ ancestry was revealed, Buffleheads were recorded in Ireland and a remarkable run of inland rarities took place.
Dark-eyed Junco: Hammersmith, London, November-December 2020
I have always enjoyed chatting to the European Robins that come to feast on the goodies I unearth while gardening. Our little piece of outdoor space is a real sanctuary and never more so than in 2020.
For Christmas 2019, my partner bought me a bird feeding station. So, in January 2020, we set it up and then retreated to the kitchen to eagerly wait for the feeding frenzy to begin. We soon had some inquisitive birds and, over the following weeks enjoyed regular visits from European Robins and Great and Blue Tits. Then came the Ring-necked Parakeets and Common Starlings (soon nicknamed ‘Starvings’ as they hoovered up everything they could!).
During the first lockdown I was shielding and we loved sitting in the kitchen watching the birds come and go. We began to notice other birds, such as Dunnocks and Eurasian Wrens, and my partner became very proud of the layered treats he would put in the feeders. We watched as the numbers grew as chicks hatched and parents showed their offspring how to feed.
Things quietened down during the summer months, but then the second lockdown arrived and I was required to shield again and so was back to working from home. Once again, my feathered friends became a lifeline. Not
only did their feeding habits entertain me through the window, they connected me to the world that was going on outside the safety of my home.
I’m a teacher, and the children in my class had become used to me updating them on the birds in my garden and looked forward to watching the short videos that I made for them. While on a Zoom call to the class in late November, a flash of white caught my eye. Looking out of the window I said: “I think we have a new visitor.”
There was a bird, a little bigger than a robin, jumping around on the sloped roof of my kitchen. I took a couple of photos that showed white streaks through the wings, and then as it flew away I noticed the white flash again. This turned out to be in its tail feathers. I showed my partner when he came home and we consulted our garden bird book. We couldn’t find anything in the book that was similar and that was that – or so I thought.
The next day, it returned. It was on the floor under the bird feeder picking up remnants of the peanuts that the parakeets were dropping. This time I grabbed my phone and took a short video. I sent it to my partner with a very excited message to tell him the mystery bird had returned. It showed the bird in much more detail. It had a dark grey back and a lighter grey-white belly. It also had a distinctive light pink beak. That evening we tried again to identify it. We used the RSPB’s ‘Identify a bird’ web page but to no avail. So, as with most questions posed in life these days, we turned to Google.
We began by looking at pictures of English garden birds. There was nothing that came close to it. So instead we put in a description of the bird: ‘dark grey body bird with white tummy.’
Black Phoebe appeared first. This was close, but the beak was wrong. Then there it was: Darkeyed Junco. “That’s it!” I cried. I was so pleased that we could put a name to the new visitor. It felt like a real victory. Then we read a bit more about it and began to question whether we had identified it correctly. It was a North American bird and had been spotted in Britain fewer than 50 times. How could it possibly be in my back garden in west London?
The next day I excitedly told my class about the discovery and we watched the video that I had taken and another I had found during my search. I didn’t see the junco for the rest of the week and our garden stalking at the weekend sadly also didn’t pay off. We decided it must have moved on.
Then, on the following Monday morning, while sitting in the kitchen eating my breakfast, it came in again. I was more prepared this time and grabbed my camera. I managed to get a good photo of my wonderful new bird and my partner suggested I share it with others. The next day I posted the picture on BirdGuides and was overwhelmed with the response to my find. An email from BirdGuides confirmed that we had correctly identified the bird and it was in fact an extremely rare find!
So, the very strange year of 2020 turned out to have the most wonderful finale. My garden has always been a sanctuary, but this year it became an absolute lifeline – being required to shield and work from home resulted in me spotting this amazing bird. I am incredibly grateful that this Dark-eyed Junco chose to visit our garden and we will always have this great story to tell that came about as a result of COVID-19. ■